Covid 19 coronavirus: Three new cases travelled on same flight from India

There were no new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand announced yesterday. Photo / 123RF

There are three new cases of Covid-19 today - and all three infected people travelled to New Zealand on the same flight from India.

The new cases are in managed isolation or quarantine around the country. There continues to be no community transmission, the Ministry of Health said today.

All three new cases arrived in Christchurch on June 30 from Delhi, India.

The trio's flight had transited through Singapore but they did not leave the plane there, the ministry said.

"All have been in managed isolation since their arrival in Christchurch and their cases were detected during our day three testing. All are now in quarantine at the Chateau on the Park," the ministry said.

"The first case is a woman in her 30s. The second is her husband, a man in his 30s.

"Their close contacts include two daughters who will be tested today and who have also been moved into the quarantine area.

"The third case is a man in his 70s, travelling with his wife who is regarded as a close contact."

The latest reporting from the World Health Organisation is that there are 212,326 new cases of Covid-19 - the largest daily increase on record.

NZ now has 21 active cases

The number of active cases in New Zealand has risen from 18 to 21 total as a result of the new cases.

A man in his 30s is in Auckland City Hospital in a stable condition.

The country now has 1183 confirmed cases. One significant cluster remains open and is due to close tomorrow.

The ministry's lab testing figures have been delayed by an IT update and will be made public as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, there have been 588,800 registrations on the NZ Covid Tracker app. The ministry continues to encourage New Zealanders to download and use it.

"It continues to provide us with up-to-date contact information to support our contact tracing efforts in Level 1," the ministry said.

"This remains key to New Zealand's elimination strategy."

The number of posters created by businesses is now 76,337 and there have been 1,340,052 poster scans to date.

Woman escaped from managed isolation

Meanwhile it was revealed today that a 43-year-old woman absconded from managed isolation at Auckland's Pullman Hotel just before 6.20pm last night.

She was found soon after a couple of blocks away at 8pm on Anzac Ave.

The five police officers who came into contact with the woman while capturing her must now have Covid-19 tests and will also have to self-isolate.

Queues of cars line up at a Covid-19 testing centre in Henderson on June 24. Photo / Dean Purcell

On Friday, the Ministry of Health's laboratories completed 2900 tests for the virus, taking the total number of completed tests to date to 411,932.

Before today's new cases, the last ones to be announced came from the Ministry of Health on Thursday, when there were two.

The first was a man in his 30s who arrived on June 27 from California, the second a woman also in her 30s who arrived from Kenya on June 21.

As of yesterday morning, the number of confirmed cases identified at the border in total is 56.

Meanwhile, the Government says charges are on the table after the leak of private Covid-19 patient details if a malicious motive is found.

The leak was revealed by the Weekend Herald, which has seen the spreadsheet of the personal details of the 18 active Covid-19 cases.

Names, dates of birth and where they tested positive for the virus are included on the spreadsheet.

The personal details of the man in Auckland City Hospital is also included.

Recently appointed Health Minister Chris Hipkins said the leak of confidential information was "totally unacceptable".

He has asked the State Services Commission, another portfolio Hipkins is responsible for, to work with the relevant agencies to ensure there is a thorough investigation.

Newly appointed Minister of Health Chris Hipkins. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Hipkins could not confirm yesterday whether the leak was deliberate or whether it was simply human error.

"Either way, it cannot happen again," Hipkins said.

"The public has every right to expect their private information to be held securely."

Elsewhere, the number of Covid-19 cases in the Australian state of Victoria continues to skyrocket, recently reporting a triple digit spike.

There were 108 new cases on Saturday, after 77 new cases were announced on Thursday and 66 on Friday.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews warned the virus could "spread like wildfire" after the 108 new cases were announced.

It was the biggest surge in cases in the state since March 28.

"As these figures show, we are still on a knife's edge," Andrews said.

"Rather than spread across the state, we know many of these cases are in specific communities.

"The close confines and the shared community spaces within these large apartment blocks means this virus can spread like wildfire.

"And just like fire, we need to put a perimeter around it to stop it from spreading."

Swift action needed to be taken to help prevent the spread of the virus, Andrews said.

Yesterday, the Premier announced the closure of nine public housing towers in hot zone suburbs of Victoria after they were linked to clusters of the virus.

The towers would be closed for five days while the authorities tested residents.