Ministry of Health update
March 29, 2021
There are no new Covid-19 community cases to report and 11 new COVID-19 border related cases to report in managed isolation. The seven-day rolling average of new cases detected at the border is 4.
Grand Mercure managed isolation facility
The investigation continues into the ‘day 12’ case at the Grand Mercure managed isolation facility in Auckland.
As at 9am this morning, a total of 236 of the 272 returnees have now been contacted and 235 have returned negative test results so far. One person has returned a positive result which is classified as a historical infection on the basis of further testing and serology results. Historical cases are not considered to be infectious.
The total number of returnees in this group has increased as further returnees take an exit test and isolate at home until the test has returned a negative result. The assessment was that this additional step was needed until today, and it has now been lifted for anyone leaving the facility from now on.
Covid-19 case numbers
There are 11 new Covid-19 cases to report in managed isolation.
The total number of active cases in New Zealand today is 86.
Our total number of confirmed cases is 2137.
Since 1 January 2021, there have been 42 historical cases, out of a total of 325 cases.
| Arrival date | From | Via | Positive test day/reason | Managed isolation/quarantine location |
| 26 Mar | Italy | Singapore | Around day 1 / routine testing | Auckland |
| 27 Mar* | India | United Arab Emirates | Around day 0 / routine testing | Auckland |
| 27 Mar* | India | United Arab Emirates | Around day 0 / routine testing | Auckland |
| 27 Mar* | India | United Arab Emirates | Around day 0 / routine testing | Auckland |
| 27 Mar* | India | United Arab Emirates | Around day 0 / routine testing | Auckland |
| 27 Mar* | India | United Arab Emirates | Around day 0 / routine testing | Auckland |
| 27 Mar* | India | United Arab Emirates | Around day 0 / routine testing | Auckland |
| 27 Mar* | India | United Arab Emirates | Around day 0 / routine testing | Auckland |
| 27 Mar* | India | United Arab Emirates | Around day 0 / routine testing | Auckland |
| 27 Mar* | India | United Arab Emirates | Around day 0 / routine testing | Auckland |
| 27 Mar* | India | United Arab Emirates | Around day 0 / routine testing | Auckland |
* These cases arrived in New Zealand on the same flight. Additional testing including Whole Genome Sequencing will help indicate whether any of the cases are related. Interviews, and where indicated, further testing will help to determine whether any of these cases are historical. Data tells us that since the beginning of the year at least one in eight Covid-19 cases is historical.
Today’s managed isolation case numbers underscore the value of having the day 0/1 testing in place. All people arriving into New Zealand must remain in their rooms until those day 0/1 tests results come back.
It’s also not uncommon to see some of the day 0/1 cases be reclassified as historical cases, which are not infectious. This is why we are continuing to publish the cumulative number of historical cases.
Testing update
On Sunday, 2748 tests were processed. 34,515 tests have been processed in the last week, with a seven-day rolling average up to yesterday of 4931 tests processed.
The total number of tests processed by laboratories to date is 1,887,079.
For up-to-date information on all testing locations nationwide is available on the Healthpoint website https://www.healthpoint.co.nz/covid-19/.
NZ Covid Tracer
NZ Covid Tracer now has 2,767,434 registered users.
Total poster scans have reached 234,925,338 and users have created 8,854,214 manual diary entries. There have been 797,481 poster scans in the last 24 hours to 1pm yesterday.
