26 Sep 2020

Two new cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand today - one imported and one historical

1:12 pm on 26 September 2020

There have been two new cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand today - one imported and one historical case.

3D illustration of coronaviruses.

Photo: AFP

There was no media conference held today. In a statement, the Health Ministry said there are no new cases in the community.

One of today's cases is an imported case detected in a managed isolation facility and the other is a historical case detected during contact tracing.

The ministry said the imported case is a man in his 30s who arrived in New Zealand on 21 September from Russia via the United Arab Emirates.

It said the historical case was tested because they were a passenger on the recent charter flight from Christchurch to Auckland, and had returned negative tests twice in managed isolation.

"From additional testing and serology analysis, we have determined there is no link to the Christchurch returnee group. Any infection would have occurred overseas prior to the person returning to New Zealand earlier this month and they are no longer infectious.

"As we have previously said about historical cases, we know that some people can return a positive PCR test long after they have recovered from the illness and are no longer infectious."

The ministry said all passengers on that charter had now been tested, with the exception of a young child.

"Aside from the previously reported 3 cases and today's historical case, all results have been negative, with one pending."

Two people are in hospital with the coronavirus - one each at Auckland City and Middlemore hospitals. Neither are in intensive care.

There are now 61 active cases in New Zealand - 30 imported cases and 31 community cases. There have been a total of 1475 cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand.

The ministry said 5952 tests were processed yesterday.

There were two new cases of Covid-19 reported yesterday, including the first community case linked to the Auckland bereavement sub-group in more than a week.

Health authorities yesterday revealed they had now identified 15 locations visited by a family of three when they may have been infectious with Covid-19.

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  • If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP - don't show up at a medical centre

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