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Whanganui Chronicle

Covid 19 coronavirus: Six new cases in managed isolation; traveller from S Africa tests positive on day 24

4 minutes to read
NZ Herald

New Zealand has six new coronavirus cases in managed isolation today, including one traveller from South Africa who tested positive on day 24.

Today's results, announced by the Ministry of Health at 1.30pm, are the first since new pre-flight testing rules for travellers to NZ were put in place.

The infected travellers came from South Africa, Britain, Zimbabwe, America and Russia.

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The case from South Africa was within a travel bubble of a previously confirmed case reported on December 31. The infected person has been in the Auckland quarantine facility since the contact case was detected.

Another person who travelled from the United Kingdom tested positive on day 12. They arrived in New Zealand on December 29 via the United Arab Emirates.

An international mariner also tested positive. The Health Ministry said this person was part of an international fishing crew which left New Zealand via ship on December 18. There had been a previous history of overseas Covid-like illness in family members and a weak positive test resulted in a clinical assessment deeming it a historical case.

The seaman arrived in New Zealand from Russia and was screened for Covid around day zero as part of routine testing in transit.

On Monday the Government reported there were 85 active cases in New Zealand. Photo / Michael Craig
On Monday the Government reported there were 85 active cases in New Zealand. Photo / Michael Craig

One person from the United States tested positive around day 3. They arrived in the country on January 14.

Another traveller who passed through the United Arab Emirates from an unnamed country tested positive around day 9 and had been moved to an Auckland quarantine facility.

One person who arrived on January 9 from Zimbabwe tested positive on day 9, and a traveller who arrived from the United Kingdom on December 29 tested positive on day 12. They were both in quarantine facilities in Auckland.

There are now 76 people with Covid-19 in New Zealand.

The Health Ministry said genome sequencing results from the latest sequencing run by ESR were due today.

Yesterday, 4451 tests were processed. The seven-day rolling average up to yesterday was 3447 tests.

The total number of confirmed cases is 1911 since the outbreak started last February.

The ministry today reminded all New Zealanders to keep each other safe and use the Covid Tracer app to scan QR codes and switch on the Bluetooth function.

For the first time since the Government introduced a requirement for all New Zealand-bound travellers leaving the US and the UK to produce a negative Covid test, today's tally includes flights that have landed since midnight Friday.

As well as the pre-fight screening, all travellers arriving into New Zealand - excluding Australia, Antarctica, and some Pacific nations - are also required to have tests on the first day they arrive and stay in their rooms until the result is known.

The Government this week announced this would be extended to all other nations next month.

Yesterday the Government reported there were 85 active cases in New Zealand and all contained in quarantine.

They included people with the highly infectious South African and UK variants.

This morning, Dr Ashley Bloomfield told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that Medsafe was not far from finalising the official process to ensure the first tranche of the vaccine was safe for New Zealanders to use.

"We are completely in step with Australia, we've got our approval process robust and it is on track for providing us with approval in coming weeks and then getting the vaccine on shore as quickly as possible," he said.