Covid 19 coronavirus: Port worker linked to existing outbreak tests positive for virus

A port worker connected to the current outbreak of Covid-19 has tested positive for the virus.

Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield confirmed the case during today's media briefing in Wellington.

When asked whether any border staff had so far tested positive for coronavirus, Bloomfield said there had been a person from MPI who tested positive in the past, and that one of the current positive cases was a port worker.

He said that person was linked as a contact of other positive cases in the new outbreak, and became symptomatic after the first new case was identified.

"That worker was identified, as I understand it, as through the close contact testing, and happens to be a port worker," he said.

The person does not work in an area of the ports that has a high amount of interactions with others.

"The symptom onset was well after the first case of symptom onset we have in the cluster."

Bloomfield today said there were nine new cases of Covid-19 in the Auckland cluster.

Seven of them have a confirmed link to the cluster, while two are believed to be linked to the cluster but are still being investigated.

Meanwhile 86 people linked to the cluster, including 36 positive cases, have been moved into a quarantine facility.

Bloomfield said people were being encouraged to move into a quarantine facility where that was helpful, such as families where some had tested positive while others had not.

There are five people receiving hospital-level care. Two are in Auckland City Hospital, and three are in Middlemore.

He said he understood the five people in hospital were stable.

The total number of active cases is 78. Of those, 58 are in the community cluster and 20 are overseas arrivals who have been contained in quarantine or managed isolation since they flew in.

There were 26,014 tests processed yesterday. Almost 100,000 tests were completed in the last week.