Three new cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand today

1:47 pm on 2 August 2020

There have been three new cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand today, all in managed isolation.

Covid-19 coronavirus particles, illustration. The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.

Photo: AFP / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

The total number of confirmed cases is now 1215.

In a statement, the Health Ministry said the first case is a child of a previously reported case who arrived in New Zealand on 14 July from Pakistan, via Dubai.

The second is a woman in her 30s who tested positive on day three of her stay in managed isolation at the Rydges hotel in Auckland. She arrived in New Zealand on 28 July from Los Angeles.

The third case is a woman in her 40s who arrived in New Zealand on 1 August from Manila, via Hong Kong. She showed symptoms on arrival and was immediately tested.

All three are now at Auckland's quarantine facility.

There were two new cases reported yesterday - two women in their 20s who were travelling together and arrived from Pakistan via Dubai on 27 July.

It has now been been 93 days since the last case of Covid-19 was caught in the community.

There are currently 25 active cases in New Zealand, none of whom are in hospital.

Increase in testing numbers

There were 2401 tests carried out yesterday, up from the 1754 and 1365 tests carried out on the previous two Saturdays, but the Ministry said it still wanted to see an increase in testing numbers, especially in Auckland and Queenstown.

Surveillance testing has been taking place this weekend in Auckland, Queenstown and Christchurch, which are locations a man travelled around in June and July before testing positive for Covid-19 in South Korea.

"DHBs in Auckland have reported around 200 people being tested for Covid-19 at new model community testing centres in Northcote, Henderson, Grafton and Wiri. All tested so far have returned negative results. These centres remain open until 3pm this afternoon and continue to have plenty of capacity.

"Canterbury DHB has continued to contact and offer testing to all identified contacts and people in Canterbury who were in the Queenstown region at the same time as the person who has since tested positive in South Korea. Testing is available through GPs or from one of three Urgent Care Centres in Christchurch: Riccarton Clinic, 24Hour Surgery or Moorhouse Medical.

"Testing at Queenstown Medical Centre has been ongoing over the weekend, with people responding to the call to be tested if they have developed symptoms since 1 July. However, numbers tested have been lower than expected."

Further community testing will take place at a pop-up testing centre on Tuesday in the Queenstown Pak n Save carpark.

"We are especially asking Queenstown locals to come forward, and in particular those who are working in public-facing roles and may have had symptoms during July. People don't need to have experienced symptoms to be tested in the pop-up centre and they won't need to self-isolate while they await the result of the test. "

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