Covid 19 coronavirus: One new case in the community, linked to Mt Roskill church

There is one new community case of Covid-19 in New Zealand today.

The new case - someone aged in their 50s - has an epidemiological link to an existing case and is associated with the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship bereavement events group.

The ministry has revised its cases and now says there are 33 cases in the church group, and 13 cases in the bereavement sub-cluster.

All church members have been asked to be retested by the end of the day, and by 8am this morning 82 per cent of the congregation had registered new tests.

There are now 70 people linked to the wider Auckland cluster in quarantine at the Jet Park Hotel, which includes 55 people who have tested positive and their household contacts.

Of 3623 identified close contacts for this outbreak, 3608 have been contacted and are self-isolating.

There are three people in hospital – one is in isolation on a ward in Auckland City Hospital. Two are in ICU, at North Shore and Waikato hospitals.

Yesterday 8953 tests were processed.

The ministry confirmed that one of the confirmed cases yesterday was a student at Henderson North School.

"The student is a household contact of a previously reported case, and, as such, had been in isolation and had been tested. They were not infectious when they last attended school and there are no close contacts among the Henderson North School community.

"The risk to any students or staff is considered to be very low, and the school remains open."

The ministry asked for the privacy of members of the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship Church to be respected.

"Nobody asks for Covid-19 to come into their home, workplace, or place of worship."

Being "pursued" by media, the ministry said, was creating stress and hindering public health work because it was making people reluctant to answer their phones.

"It is also creating a sense of stigma which is again unhelpful for public health efforts – we need people to be forthcoming and co-operative with testing and contact tracing," the ministry said.

"Those affected by the virus need our collective support, and we need their co-operation to ensure Covid-19 does not spread further in our communities."

Today's new case is associated with the sub-cluster that started when an infectious church member visited a bereaved family while Auckland was still in level 3.

The infectious person had been identified as a close contact of an infected person and should have been isolating at home.

Previous non-compliance from the church group was based on a false belief that Covid-19 wasn't real, which Health Minister Chris Hipkins said had to be stamped out as much as the virus itself.

Auckland is currently at level "2.5", with the rest of New Zealand at level 2 - the Cabinet will review the levels on Monday. Any confirmed changes to levels next week will take effect from 11.59pm on Wednesday.

But the chances of a move to level 1 next week look unlikely with health experts and epidemiologists saying they would like to see a consistent run of zero daily cases.