30 Jul 2020

One new case of Covid-19 in managed isolation - Bloomfield

2:10 pm on 30 July 2020

There is one new case of Covid-19 in managed isolation in New Zealand today, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.

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Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the person was a woman in her 20s who had travelled from Ireland via Dubai.

Her positive result was from day three testing, Dr Bloomfield said, and she had been transferred to a quarantine facility in Auckland from the Rydges hotel in Rotorua.

The total number of confirmed cases is now 1210 and it has been 90 days since the last case of Covid-19 was acquired locally from an unknown source, he said.

There were no additional recovered cases today, so there are 24 active cases in New Zealand, none of whom are in hospital.

Dr Bloomfield also said a second test of the man who tested positive in South Korea after leaving New Zealand had confirmed the positive result.

However, he said all testing of contacts in New Zealand that had returned tests had been negative results. He said there was still no evidence from follow-up activities that there is community transmission in New Zealand.

There were four possibilities for the case, Dr Bloomfield said. Firstly, it may have been a false positive result - though the second positive test has now ruled that out. Second, it may have been an old infection which returned a positive result. The third possibility was the person acquired the infection from travel, and the fourth was that they acquired it in New Zealand.

That last possibility was the one the ministry was working to rule out, he said.

Dr Bloomfield said health authorities were doing further surveillance testing to rule out the possibility of community transmission around the case and urged anyone who was in Queenstown between 1 and 4 July and people in Manurewa, South Auckland to get a Covid test if they had symptoms.

He said they knew the person's movements on the ground in Christchurch, when they flew there from Auckland, and businesses had been helpful.

Testing and tracing

Dr Bloomfield said 2523 Covid-19 tests were completed yesterday, with 2226 of those in the community and the rest in managed isolation facilities.

Health Minister Chris Hipkins urged all New Zealanders to take a test if they were offered one. He said testing numbers in the community were still not at the level the Ministry was aiming for.

The government and the minister has been pushing to get testing numbers up to the recommended level of about 4000 people a day, but daily test numbers and the seven-day average have consistently lagged behind.

He said one of the issues they're facing is that people are still reluctant to be tested.

"Please take the test. If you GP or your doctor offers you to get tested, please say yes to that.

"We all have to stay on guard and play our part."

He said 460,000 tests had been taken so far - about 9 percent of New Zealanders had taken one.

There were now 621,400 registered users of the government's Covid-19 tracer app, and 82,287 posters have been created and placed, he said.

Leak of privacy details 'disgraceful and grubby - Hipkins

Hipkins said the report into the leaking of Covid-19 patient details by former National MP Hamish Walker and former party president Michelle Boag clearly laid the blame squarely on them.

Hipkins said this was a "disgraceful and grubby" act carried out by two National Party members for political purposes.

The report was clear that the Ministry's processes could have been tighter, Hipkins said, and they had now done that.

Dr Bloomfield said he wanted to acknowledge the 18 people who were affected by the privacy leak and said the Ministry had apologised.

He said the ministry took actions which included stopping sending the daily information that was being sent to organisations.

"We stopped sending that information given that under the circumstances all our cases are in managed isolation quarantine and we don't feel those organisations need to receive it."

He said they have also reviewed the list of organisations.

Should information be required by external parties, Dr Bloomfield said the ministry would make sure there was a clear reason and privacy protection built in.

Earlier developments

In the latest Covid-19 developments in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health is planning to fast-track the approval process for a Covid-19 vaccine, and won't rule out offering a supplier indemnity from any potential claims resulting from its use.

New Zealanders in the UK have a reprieve after it announced a further visa extension for foreigners stuck there because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yesterday, there were two new cases of Covid-19 in managed isolation in New Zealand.

A Christchurch McDonald's which was visited by a man who later tested positive for Covid-19 will not need to be deep-cleaned.

A man who flew from Christchurch to South Korea 10 days ago tested positive for the virus when he arrived.

Health officials said it was unlikely the man was infected in New Zealand and there remains no evidence of community transmission.

Canterbury Medical Officer of Health, Dr Cheryl Brunton, says the man visited the McDonald's on Memorial Avenue on 20 July but no staff or other customers are considered a close contact.

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