Ministry of Health Covid-19 update
August 29, 2020
There are 13 new cases of Covid-19 to report in New Zealand today.
Two are imported cases in managed isolation who both arrived in New Zealand from India on August 23. The first is a woman in her 70s and the second case is a man in his 30s. They both tested positive for Covid-19 around day 3 of their time in MIQ at the Grand Millennium in Auckland.
Of the 11 community cases, 10 are clearly epidemiologically linked to the Auckland cluster.
Six cases are associated with the Mt Roskill Evangelical Church – four within the same household and two who attended church services.
Four other cases are contacts of previously reported confirmed cases.
The remaining person who has tested positive for Covid-19 is being interviewed today to determine their possible links to the cluster.
By this morning our contact tracing team had identified 2489 close contacts of cases, of which 2425 have been contacted and are self-isolating, and we are in the process of contacting the rest. For the period August 20-26, 82 per cent of close contacts were contacted and isolated within 48 hours of a case being notified, meeting the 80 per cent target.
There are 132 people linked to the community cluster who have been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility, which includes 82 people who have tested positive for Covid-19 and their household contacts.
There are 11 people with Covid-19 in hospital today; three in Auckland City, four in Middlemore, three in North Shore and one in Waikato. Eight people are on a ward, and three are in ICU – one each in Middlemore, North Shore and Waikato Hospital.
There are seven previously reported cases who are considered to have recovered today, bringing the total number of active confirmed cases to 136, plus one previously reported probable case remains active. Of the 137 active cases, 20 are imported cases in MIQ facilities, and 117 are community cases.
Our total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 is now 1376, which is the number we report to the World Health Organization.
Testing
Yesterday our laboratories processed 9991 tests for COVID-19, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 740,321.
The full up-to-date list of testing sites in Auckland is at www.arphs.health.nz/covid19test
The Ministry of Health website has advice on where you can find testing facilities in the rest of the country – see Assessment and testing for COVID-19
If you develop symptoms consistent with Covid-19, wherever you are, please call Healthline (0800 358 5453) or your doctor immediately and have a test.
NZ Covid Tracer
NZ Covid Tracer has now recorded 1,919,100 registered users. There have been 335,536 posters created, and 24,248,027 poster scans to date. There have been 1,901,334, manual diary entries recorded in the app.