Ministry of Health Covid-19 update
September 2, 2020
There are five new cases of Covid-19 to report in New Zealand today – two in MIQ and three community cases.
The three community cases are all epidemiologically linked to the Mount Roskill Evangelical Church, which has been genomically linked to the larger Auckland cluster. All were already identified as close contacts and in self isolation.
Both imported cases were detected in MIQ at the Rydges in Rotorua via routine testing around day 3.
The first case is a woman in her 30s who arrived from Dubai on August 28.
The second case is a child who arrived from Uzbekistan via Dubai on August 28. Both cases have been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility along with people in their bubble.
Since August 11, our contact tracing team has identified 3192 close contacts of cases, of which 2992 have been contacted and are self-isolating, and we are in the process of contacting the rest.
There are 104 people linked to the community cluster who have been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility, which includes 75 people who have tested positive for Covid-19 and their household contacts.
There are seven people with Covid-19 in hospital today; one in Auckland City, two in Middlemore, two in North Shore, and two in Waikato. Five people are on a ward, and two are in ICU – one each in Middlemore and Waikato Hospitals.
There are eight previously reported cases who are considered to have recovered today – all community cases.
With today’s five new cases, our total number of active cases is 129. Of those, 35 are imported cases in MIQ facilities, and 94 are community cases.
Our total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 is now 1406, which is the number we report to the World Health Organization.
Yesterday our laboratories processed 10,934 tests for Covid-19, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 777,560.
Review of public messages sign out
The Ministry has conducted a rapid internal review to understand how an incorrect message regarding Covid-19 testing was disseminated over the weekend, and to take steps to ensure this does not happen again.
We have found that material developed was clinically accurate and signed out by subject matter experts, but an error was made as that information was converted into messaging for the public.
It was not signed out by a senior responsible offer as a final step, which should have happened.
We have put in place processes to prevent this happening again.
We know this caused confusion and anxiety for people in Auckland and apologise for that. We also thank Aucklanders for their efforts during level 3, particularly around testing.
