Covid 19 Coronavirus: Two new cases in isolation centres

There are two new Covid cases - both in managed isolation and quarantine facilities.

Today there are 18 active cases. Six people have recently recovered.

The first new case is a man in his 30s who arrived in New Zealand on June 27 from California.

He had been staying at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Auckland and was transferred to Jet Park Hotel on June 30 after developing symptoms and tested positive.

The second is a woman in her 30s who arrived in New Zealand on June 21 from Kenya, via Doha and Brisbane.

She is the wife of a previously reported case.

She had been staying at the Novotel Ellerslie and is now at Jet Park Hotel. She tested positive after developing symptoms around day 10 of her stay.

One person is in Auckland City Hospital in a stable condition.

The Ministry of Health says just one significant cluster remains open.

New Zealand now has a total of 1180 confirmed cases of Covid-19.

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In recent weeks the government has stepped up security at the border, drafting in military personnel and Avsec staff to oversee managed isolation facilities.

In a lapse in testing protocols, more than 1000 people left quarantine without a negative test last month.

And 294 people who checked out of managed isolation facilities in June without a test still have not been tracked down.

"We ask this group of people take responsibility for confirming whether they have been tested by making contact with Healthline," the Ministry of Health said.

"As needed we will refer people we do not make contact with to finding services. 48 of these had invalid phone numbers, so have already been referred.

The health ministry said because people in this group were in isolation facilities for two weeks, and had now been out of isolation for more than two weeks, they posed a very low risk to the community.

Director general of Health Ashley Bloomfield said Friday would be the last day he would give daily reports on the numbers identified as having left isolation after June 9 without a test – the date on which day 3 and day 12 testing was supposed to have started.

Of the 1359, most have been contacted and tested negative or referred for a test; 142 will not be tested including 84 who have refused a test; and 367 people have not responded to repeated contact. Our borders remained closed to all but Kiwis. Bloomfield warned a recent spike of cases in Melbourne proved just how community transmission in the future is a real possibility here.