Ministry of Health Covid-19 update
November 12, 2020
There are three new cases of Covid-19 to report in New Zealand today.
One case was detected in a recent returnee in a managed isolation facility.
They arrived on November 9 from Los Angeles. They returned a positive test around day 3 of their stay in managed isolation and have been moved to the Auckland quarantine facility.
There are two new cases in the community.
One of these is connected to the November quarantine cluster. Case C is a close contact of Case B and tested positive on 11 November.
Case C met Case B for lunch in Wellington at the Little Penang restaurant on The Terrace on Friday afternoon. On developing symptoms on Saturday they self-isolated at home and had a Covid-19 test.
Although initially returning a negative result on day 3, they were moved to quarantine at the Grand Mercure in Wellington as a precaution on Tuesday. A second test yesterday resulted in a positive result.
Push notifications were sent out on Sunday for Little Penang The Terrace, visited by Case B and Case C. Anyone who visited the restaurant between 1pm and 4pm on Friday should have a test if they feel symptomatic.
Household contacts for Case C are in isolation and have returned negative results.
All identified close contacts of the new case are isolating.
All close contacts of Case B, other than Case C, have returned a negative test result.
Auckland community case
Today we are also reporting a community case in Auckland for which we continue to investigate the source of transmission.
The person became symptomatic on Monday November 9. They were tested late on November 10. They went to work at A – Z Collection on High Street from Sunday November 8 to Wednesday 8 November.
Their positive test was confirmed this morning, November 12. They are being moved to the Auckland quarantine facility today.
This is another very important reminder that if you are unwell with cold symptoms, you should get a test and stay at home until you have a negative test result.
Auckland Regional Public Health is interviewing the case today to identify close and casual contacts and to further understand their movements during the period they may have been infectious, which we currently believe to have been around Saturday November 7.
The person lives alone and appears to have had limited community outings recently. For instance, they have not visited a supermarket during the period they might have been infectious. The person is a student at AUT, however they have not been to any lectures or classes on campus since mid-October. There is no concern with any potential exposures on campus.
At this time, as highly precautionary step we are asking people who may have visited A-Z Collections store on High St and the Vincent Residences at 106 Vincent Street between Saturday November 7 and today November 12 to isolate and get advice on being tested promptly even if asymptomatic, and stay isolated until you receive the results.
As always anyone in the Auckland area who has cold or flu symptoms should get a test and stay at home until you have a negative test result.
There are details on the Auckland Regional Public Health website around current testing sites, and these will be further updated this afternoon.
Additional locations of interest will be identified and notified to the public as soon as possible, including any locations in the central city area where the case lives and works.
Auckland health officials are also working to provide additional testing in this central city area. The location of that additional testing will be available later today.
We are urgently working to trace this person’s movements over the past week to determine how they became infected. Genome testing of this case is also underway to help us understand any potential links to previous cases.
At this stage the Ministry is not advising of any need to change the current approach.
We will also be providing a further update on this case later this afternoon, likely at approximately 5pm.
Anyone concerned about today’s news can ring Healthline’s dedicated number 0800 358 5453 for advice.
Numbers
Two previously reported cases have now recovered, bringing our total number of active cases to 53.
Our total number of confirmed cases is now 1635.
Yesterday our laboratories completed 6581 tests for Covid-19, bringing our total number of tests completed to date to 1,155,514.
NZ Covid Tracer
There are now 2,349,900 registered users of the NZ Covid Tracer app.
Poster scans have reached 112,469,275 and there have been 4,667, 638 manual diary entries.
These recent cases have once again re-emphasised the importance of keeping track of your movements.
It’s important we all scan the QR codes wherever we see them, so we can be notified when we may have been exposed to Covid-19 and to help contact tracers stay one step ahead of the virus.
