Covid 19 coronavirus live updates: AUT student's neighbour confirmed as a new case after investigation

New Zealand will remain at alert level 1 after the source of the latest community Covid-19 case was found. The case - an AUT student aged in her 20s - has been genomically linked to the Defence worker who was infected at a quarantine hotel.

The neighbour of the AUT student has been confirmed as a case of Covid-19 after an investigation.

There are also two new cases; both are returnees in managed isolation.

The new case connected to the Defence Force cluster was confirmed as a case today after yesterday returning a "weak positive" result.

The person's initial test was negative but a further test picked up the weak positive result which officials investigated further.

The Ministry of Health said the test results indicated a "very recent infection".

The neighbour was classed as a close contact of the AUT student - also known as Case D - and has been in the Auckland quarantine facility since November 12.

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The Auckland Regional Public Health Unit has also identified seven close contacts and three casual contacts. All have been contacted and testing arranged.

Testing for all 10 contacts is expected to be completed by the end of the day.

There are no places of interest identified to date for this latest case.

The other two cases in managed isolation are returnees from the UK and Dubai. Both have been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility.

The total number of active cases is 58 and the total number of confirmed cases is now 1645.

Testing

Yesterday the increased demand for community testing across Auckland's testing network continued.

More than 10,500 tests were processed yesterday, bringing the total completed to date to 1.17 million tests.

Yesterday was the highest number of tests processed in one day at a weekend since August 16.

Almost 70 per cent of the testing was in the Auckland region and 10 per cent was in the Wellington region.

The ministry is continuing to ask people who were at the locations of interest to get a test regardless of whether they have symptoms.

A list of testing sites can be found on the ARPHS website.

Jump in Covid Tracer scans

Yesterday, the highest number of poster scans was recorded since September 26; there were more than 1.1 million scans and more than 500,000 people using the app.

But that represents just 21 per cent of the 2.3 million people who've downloaded the app.

The Ministry of Health continued to implore people to use the app.

"It is encouraging to see that many New Zealanders are responding to the call to get back into the habit of scanning the QR codes.

"The ministry continues to encourage everyone to scan the QR codes wherever they see them, as the more we all scan, the safer we'll all be.

"The faster we can contact trace, the quicker we can get ahead of the virus and prevent spread in the community."

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