Ministry of Health Covid-19 update
October 23, 2020
There are nine new cases of Covid-19 to report in New Zealand today.
Eight of these cases have been detected in our managed isolation facilities and one is a household contact connected to the marine employee cluster, who was already in self isolation.
Seven of the cases in managed isolation involve fishing crew at our Christchurch facility. These were picked up at day six testing and we do expect more positive results from this group as more tests are processed today.
The other case from managed isolation arrived from Iran via Dubai on 19 October. They tested positive following routine day 3 testing and are now in our Auckland quarantine facility.
Our total number of active cases is now 66.
Our total number of confirmed cases is now 1,567.*
Yesterday our laboratories completed 6053 tests for Covid-19, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 1,054,047.
Weekend testing
The metro Auckland DHBs are monitoring the demand for testing closely and remain ready to further increase testing capacity over the long weekend if needed.
There will be plenty of testing opportunities available over the long weekend.
Seven community testing centres will be open – those are Northcote Community Testing Centre, Northcare Accident and Medical, Whānau House in Henderson, Western Springs Community Testing Centre, the Whānau Ora Community Clinic in Wiri, the Otara Community Testing Centre and the North Harbour stadium carpark in Albany.
Covid-19 testing is also available across metro Auckland at a number of urgent care clinics and general practices over the long weekend. A reminder that wherever you get swabbed, a Covid-19 test is free of charge.
Full details of testing availability in Auckland can be found on the ARPHS website.
Where ever you are in New Zealand over coming days, you can call Healthline for advice 24/7 and information on testing locations. Their dedicated Covid-19 number is 0800 358 5453, or you can check with the DHBs website.
We want to thank New Zealanders, especially Aucklanders, who are doing the right things by remaining vigilant, self-isolating and getting tested if they have even the slightest symptoms. Your actions are helping to keep you, your whānau and your communities safe.
We also want to acknowledge our primary care sector for the work they are doing at community testing centres, general practices and urgent care clinics.
A reminder that anyone who was at the Malthouse pub in Greenhithe on Friday night and their household contacts should self-isolate and get tested for Covid-19. They should remain in isolation until they receive their results. We will ensure those results are returned as quickly as possible once the test is processed.
We’ve analysed the data involved in sending out the push notification via the app for this setting and it’s revealed that only a small number of people scanned in.
We can’t stress enough that if app usage is low, our contact tracers might not get a head-start on breaking any chain of transmission, which means the virus will have more time to spread.
The more we scan, the safer we’ll be. The faster we respond, the faster we stop it. Time is our friend here.
If you can’t or don’t want to use the app, we encourage you to use the written sign-in that businesses should have available, and for your own records use another method that works for you, like the NZ Covid Tracer booklet.
You can download the booklet from the Covid-19 website.
NZ Covid Tracer
There are now 2,315,000 users registered on NZ Covid Tracer.
The app has recorded a total of 96,797,403 poster scans, and users have created 4,055,531 manual diary entries.
Public health essentials
Wherever we are and whoever we’re with this long weekend, we all need to make sure we’re following the public health essentials:
· washing our hands regularly
· keeping surfaces clean
· coughing and sneezing into our elbows
· staying home when we’re sick
· getting tested if we have Covid-19 symptoms
· and wearing face coverings on public transport and when we can’t maintain good physical distancing.
*Our online data will be slightly outdated as we are reporting five cases from the fishing crew, outside our normal sequence.
