Covid 19 coronavirus: Three cases remain under investigation- what we know about NZ's current cases

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Three of New Zealand's current Covid-19 cases remain under investigation - the total number of active cases are 123.

Cases under investigation include:

• The Rydges hotel maintenance worker who is reported to not have come into direct contact with any guests. He may have caught it from a surface an infected person had touched.

• A person who showed up at North Shore Hospital ED on Friday night.

• A person who returned to New Zealand in June and may have caught the virus months ago. They had been asymptomatic, had not tested positive during their stay in MIQ - but all indications were it was an old case.

New details about cases are emerging in between the daily briefings. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Here's what is known about the cases confirmed since the country's first case of community transmission for more than 100 days:

The first cases (four people)

The earliest case found to date was a worker at the Americold cool store in Mt Wellington who became sick on about July 31.

The outbreak was discovered after a woman in her 50s went to the doctor with symptoms and was tested on Monday, August 10.

A second swab on Tuesday, August 11, confirmed the positive result. Three family members also tested positive (her husband, also in his 50s, a woman in her 20s and a baby boy).

The wife worked at Finance Now on Dominion Rd and the husband at Americold (his colleague was the person who fell sick on July 31).

The woman in her 20s and three other family members, including the baby boy who tested positive, had travelled to Rotorua and Taupō from August 8-11.

The family checked into Wai Ora Lakeside Hotel at 3.30pm on August 8. They had dinner at the Herbs and Spice Thai Restaurant at 8pm that evening.

The following day at 2.30pm they visited the Pak'nSave supermarket at Amohau St in Rotorua, before visiting Heritage Farm and 3D Art Gallery at 3.30pm. At 4pm they were at the Skyline Gondola and Luge.

On the morning of Monday, August 10, they drove to Taupō and took a trip with Sail Barbary Eco Sailing, before going back to the Heritage Farm and 3D Art Gallery at 3pm. That night they ate at Burger Fuel Redwood Centre in Rotorua about 7pm.

On Tuesday morning and on their drive back home they stopped at an undisclosed petrol station at 9am.

Cases announced on Thursday, August 13 (13 confirmed and one probable, total of 17 confirmed community cases)

Thirteen confirmed cases were announced by the Ministry of Health, and all were in Auckland and linked to the four people from the original family:

• Three of the new cases are employees of Americold. Another seven cases are family members of those employees.

• Another person is an employee of Finance Now. They were admitted to and later discharged from North Shore Hospital. Their family member also tested positive.

Cases included school students:

• A student at Mount Albert Grammar and a relative of the previously announced cases.

• A student at Glamorgan School (a primary school) in Torbay.

• A 6-year-old boy attending Southern Cross Campus.

• A preschooler at the Taeaofou i Puaseisei Preschool on Winthrop Way, in Māngere East. The preschool is near the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa Māngere East Puaseisei.

Up to 300 people who attended church on Sunday have been urged to get tested for Covid-19 urgently after several members of a family at the congregation tested positive, including the preschooler's parents and at least one other child.

Reverend Victor Pouesi told the Herald he understood that one of the preschooler's parents works with a family member of one of the initial family-of-four confirmed to have Covid-19.

Cases announced on Friday, August 14 (12 confirmed and one probable, total of 30 confirmed community cases)

There were 12 new confirmed cases announced, and one probable case. The confirmed cases range in age from a teenager to an Auckland man aged over 70.

• Two of the cases are in Tokoroa, one woman aged 15-19 and another woman aged 40-49. They are a close contact of one of the Auckland cases (an Americold worker announced as a case on Thursday) who stayed the night after also travelling to Morrinsville and visiting Kingswood rest home. Other family members in the Tokoroa home have tested negative. Iwi are helping work through quarantine arrangements.

• All of the new cases are linked to the existing cluster, except for a confirmed case who is in Auckland City Hospital. That case was the last to be confirmed and investigations into it only got under way on Friday morning.

Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) students have been told a student studying in TechPark's general engineering area based at South Campus, Ōtara, has tested positive, but was not on campus while they were infectious.

And Snowplanet in Silverdale on the North Shore has confirmed a casual worker had tested positive. The man last worked at Snowplanet on Wednesday, August 5, and later tested positive to Covid-19 on Tuesday, August 11.

"We've been advised by the Ministry of Health that it is highly unlikely he was infected at the time he was working for us at Snowplanet and so the risk of infection for staff and customers is very low," director of snow sports and slope operation Brad Alywin said.

"Nevertheless, through caution, we've advised staff to isolate for three days, and if they are showing symptoms to get tested and checked."

Two Noel Leeming stores on the North Shore - Albany and Wairau Park - have also been told someone who tested positive had visited over the weekend.

Cases announced on Monday, August 17 (9 confirmed and one probable, total of 58 confirmed community cases)

There were nine new confirmed cases of Covid-19 reported, all from the Auckland cluster.

The confirmed cases age range from children under nine and a man over 70.

Cases include:

• A NZ Post worker at the company's operations centre in Highbrook tested positive for Covid-19. A small number of people considered close contacts had been notified and are in self-isolation awaiting test results. The operations centre was deep cleaned.

• A person confirmed as a case on Monday August 11 went to a Buttabean Motivation fitness class in West Auckland.

• A person who visited Weta Workshop in Wellington later tested posted for Covid-19. The visitor spent half an hour at the workshop on Thursday, August 6, between 9.15am and 9.45am. It is understood they did not take part in a tour of the building in Miramar, Wellington.

• A person with Covid-19 was at Mt Roskill Primary School between 1.40pm on August 11 and the same time the next day.

• A student at Avondale College tested positive for the virus. The school's principal Lyndy Watkinson emailed parents informing them of the new case on Sunday afternoon.

Cases announced on Tuesday, August 18 (12 confirmed, one probable, total 71 community cases):

There were 13 new confirmed cases reported, with 69 of the 71 active community cases linked to the Auckland cluster.

Of these, 44 cases have been transferred to the Jet Park quarantine facility in Auckland with a further 52 close contacts so households can be kept together.

Cases included:

• A maintenance worker at a managed isolation facility at the Rydges Hotel in Auckland tested positive for Covid-19. The man is not linked to the existing Auckland August cluster. The worker tested positive on Sunday, August 16, after symptoms for the virus started from August 11.

• A second NZ Post worker tested positive for Covid-19 in Auckland. The person was last at work on Friday August 14, but wasn't displaying any symptoms of the coronavirus at that time, NZ Post chief operating officer Mark Stewart said.

Cases announced on Wednesday, August 19 (five new confirmed)

There were six new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, five linked to the Auckland cluster and one imported case.

The imported case was a woman in her 50s who flew in from Qatar - she was in managed isolation in Rotorua but has now been moved to Auckland for quarantine.

There were five people receiving hospital-level care. One is at Auckland City Hospital on a ward, and four people are at Middlemore.

Cases announced on Thursday, August 20 (five confirmed, total 80 community cases):

There were five new cases were linked to the Auckland cluster which started with an Americold staffer - four are in Auckland and one in Tokoroa.

Another case was a St Lukes Mall worker - who was under investigation but was later confirmed as being part of the Auckland cluster.

The mall worker may have been on the same bus as another positive case, Bloomfield said, which underlined the importance of wearing a mask on public transport.

"This bus journey, the morning of August 12, was just before Auckland went into alert level 3. That's the value of having that wider restriction on movement."

That means even if there was infection on the bus, other people on the bus should have been at home since the journey.

Cases announced on Friday, August 21 (11 new cases)

New Zealand saw 11 new Covid-19 case, nine in the community and two in managed isolation.

Five of the new cases were linked to South Auckland churches, and of 223 identified close contacts, 170 have been tested.

Cases announced on Monday, August 24 (9 new cases - 8 confirmed and one probable)

There were nine new cases - eight confirmed and one probable.

Eight cases were connected to the South Auckland cluster and one in MIQ.

There are 101 cases in the Auckland cluster, three in the community are under investigation and 19 cases are in MIQ, bringing the total number of active cases to 123.

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