Ministry of Health Covid-19 update
October 20, 2020
There is one new imported case of Covid-19 to report in New Zealand today. There are no new community cases.
Today’s imported case arrived on October 7 from Kenya via Dubai and was taken to a managed isolation facility in Auckland. They tested positive at routine testing around day 12 of their stay and have been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility.
Our total number of confirmed cases is now 1531, which is the number we report to the World Health Organization.
Five previously reported cases are now considered to have recovered, bringing our total number of active cases to 33.
There are 30 community close contacts identified in relation to the port worker case, and all of those have been contacted and are self-isolating.
All the test results returned from close and casual contacts of the case announced on Sunday are negative to date.
Yesterday our laboratories completed 2715 tests for Covid-19, bringing our total number of tests completed to date to 1,034,603.
Testing
Anyone in New Zealand who develops symptoms consistent with Covid-19 should immediately contact their health care provider or Healthline and get tested.
You can get tested at all the normal places you would usually get medical attention.
People can get tested at their GP, or at after hours clinics. Many DHBs still have community-based assessment centres for Covid-19 testing, and some DHBs are also doing pop-up testing.
Locations where you can get a test are available on your DHB website or on the ARPHS website if you are in Auckland.
Wherever and whenever you go to get tested, a Covid-19 test is free of charge.
Ships
Moana Chief
This is the New Zealand-based ship with the New Zealand-based crew who we plan to test tomorrow. We consider this ship unlikely to be the source of the infection of Sunday’s case. The ship is today moving from Marsden Point to Tauranga, and testing of the crew will take place tomorrow to rule it out as the source of infection.
Sofrana Surville
This is the ship we suspect as being the source of the infection of Sunday’s case. The ship arrived in Brisbane last night and New Zealand officials are following up with public health officials in Australia on the health of those on board. Australian authorities are conducting testing and serology on all 19 crew members. They will share these results when received and conduct genome sequencing on any positive results that are returned.
Our investigation into the ship’s activities while in New Zealand has found that there are 11 people who we consider to have had contact with the ship while it was in Auckland. All are being followed up, tested and isolated if appropriate.
Toi Te Ora, the public health unit in the Bay of Plenty, is continuing work to identify people who boarded the ship while it was in Tauranga.
Ken Rei
The Ken Rei remains anchored off Napier. Officials are determining with the ship’s owners the next move for the Ken Rei, in conjunction with public health units and port authorities. Testing arrangements will be made once a decision about future movements has been made.
We continue to conduct daily health checks for all 21 crew members on board. All are currently well and not reporting any symptoms of Covid-19, and have been symptom-free for seven days.
NZ Covid Tracer
There are now 2,311,100 users registered on NZ Covid Tracer.
The app has recorded a total of 94,853,858 poster scans, and users have created 3,962,747 manual diary entries.
