Ministry of Health Covid-19 update
July 31, 2020
There are no new cases of Covid-19 to report in New Zealand today.
It has been 91 days since the last case of Covid-19 was acquired locally from an unknown source.
The total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 remains at 1210, which is the number we report to the World Health Organization.
Four previously reported cases are now considered to have recovered, which brings the total number of active cases in New Zealand’s managed isolation and quarantine facilities to 20.
There is no one in New Zealand receiving hospital-level care for Covid-19.
Yesterday our laboratories completed 2476 tests, of which 2022 swabs were taken in the community, and 454 were taken in managed isolation and quarantine facilities.
That brings the total number of tests completed to date to 465,066.
Covid-19 case in South Korea
There continues to be no evidence of transmission in New Zealand involving the traveller who tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival in South Korea.
All domestic contacts of this case tested to date have returned negative results.
While these results reinforce that the public health risk from this case continues to be low, further contact tracing is taking place around their travel within New Zealand, including their visit to the Queenstown area in early July, the South Auckland area where they were based and Christchurch where they departed from.
Targeted testing
This weekend district health boards will stand up a targeted testing surveillance programme in the Queenstown, South Auckland and Christchurch – these locations are connected to the case in South Korea.
This person was in Manurewa and Takanini in South Auckland on June 20 – July 20, Queenstown on July 1-4 and in and around Christchurch Airport on July 20-21.
The DHBs and public health units will be providing community specific information around where and when testing can take place. You’ll find this information on their websites and on social media.
If you have, or may have had symptoms, please contact Healthline or your GP for an assessment for testing. The Covid-19 assessment and Covid-19 testing are both free.
People who may have been in those areas around those dates but have now moved elsewhere can also call Healthline for further advice about getting tested.
We want to thank all contacts who have been tested around this case and we continue to encourage everyone who is offered a test to take this up. These negative test results provide us with confidence that New Zealand has no community transmission of Covid-19.
Testing is the best way we can be assured that there is no undetected community transmission in New Zealand – and we need everyone to play their part in that. If you are offered a test for Covid-19, please get swabbed.
Anyone concerned about their health as a result of this update can call Healthline on 0800 358 5453.
NZ Covid Tracer
NZ Covid Tracer has now recorded 622,400 registrations. There have been 82,408 posters created and 1,656,464 poster scans. Since the app was updated yesterday to allow for manual entries, 2960 manual entries have been logged.
