Covid 19 coronavirus: One new case in managed isolation

There is one new case of Covid-19 in managed isolation today.

Today's new case arrived from India via Singapore on 31 October. They were transferred from managed isolation at the Grand Mercure to the Auckland quarantine facility on 5 November after a family member tested positive for Covid-19.

There are no new community cases of the virus.

There are currently 52 cases in New Zealand.

It includes two defence force staffers who make up the newest November quarantine cluster.

Ministry of Health officials said today that while genome sequencing for the first defence force staffer infected shows a direct link to two returnees at the Auckland quarantine facility, the nature of the contact between case and the returnees is still being investigated. In addition, a wide review of CCTV footage is being conducted to determine the exposure event for the person's infection.

The remaining close contact of the staffer has returned a negative test result.

Of the second defence worker's 55 identified close contacts, 48 have returned a negative result, and the rest are pending.

Yesterday the Ministry of Health the said index case in the cluster works at the Auckland quarantine facility.

Health officials yesterday revealed genome sequencing showed a direct link to two returnees who were part of a family group in the facility.

Investigations were underway to determine the source of the exposure.

More than 200 defence force personnel sharing accommodation in Auckland alongside the infected worker had returned a negative result. Yesterday there were three results pending.

Of the 25 close contacts of Defence Force worker, 23 had returned a negative result, and one result was pending.

One close contact had returned a positive result, who was a defence force worker who was the second community case in the cluster.

Health officials had identified 55 close contacts of the colleague and of those 32 had returned a negative test result.

The defence staffer had three household contacts, and all had returned negative test results.

The household contacts included two students who attended two different schools, Boulcott Primary and Hutt Intermediate, in Lower Hutt. These students were in isolation, and had not been at school since Friday. As a precaution, they would remain in isolation for 14 days.

Results of casual contacts on a flight the staffer took from Auckland to Wellington while infected on Thursday evening had come back negative except for two which were pending.

Another passenger on the flight that fell ill this week, sparking alarm across the Waikato after attending a community meeting in Kawhia on Saturday came back negative yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday there were four new cases of Covid-19, all detected in people who had recently arrived in New Zealand and were in managed isolation facilities.

The travellers are all now at Auckland's Jet Park quarantine facility.

Since February's outbreak there have been 1,630 confirmed cases in New Zealand.