There is one new case of Covid-19 in managed isolation today, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.
File image. Photo: AFP
It has now been 80 days since the last case of Covid-19 was acquired locally from an unknown source, the ministry said.
In a statement released just after 1.20pm today, the Ministry said the new case was a man in his 40s who arrived in the country last Wednesday from Mexico, flying via Los Angeles.
They said he tested positive following day three surveillance testing and had been transferred, along with his family, to a quarantine facility in Auckland.
The number of active cases in New Zealand is now 26 and the total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 is 1204.
The Ministry said one person with the coronavirus was transferred from Auckland's quarantine facility to Middlemore Hospital yesterday evening for an unrelated health condition. The person was in a stable condition.
"Members of staff treating the man were made aware that he had returned from overseas to a managed quarantine facility and appropriate protocols were followed," the Ministry said.
No members of staff were considered to be close contacts.
The Ministry said the patient was cared for in a separate room in the Emergency Department at Middlemore Hospital before being transferred to a separate room on one of the hospital wards.
There were 681 tests processed yesterday. The vast majority of those, 673, were swabs taken from managed isolation facilities.
The Ministry said they were aware that school holidays and lower rates than usual of influenza in the community may have had an impact on testing. It was encouraging anyone offered a test to take it.
Yesterday, there were three new cases of Covid-19 reported in managed isolation in New Zealand.
To date the total number of tests completed in New Zealand is 443,169.
The NZ Covid Tracer app has recorded 615,400 registered users.
In other Covid-19 news today, Cabinet is discussing whether or not to charge returning New Zealanders for quarantine, but a final decision on any payment is unlikely.
The minister responsible for managed isolation and quarantine, Megan Woods, told Morning Report: "There won't be a final decision today but we've been signalling for many, many weeks now that charging for managed isolation and quarantine is something that we need to consider.
"It's very complex. There's a range of legal equity implementation issues that we've had to work our way through."
A media briefing after today's Cabinet meeting is expected at 4pm.
