Ministry of Health Covid-19 update
November 19, 2020
There are two new cases of Covid-19 to report in New Zealand today, both detected in recent returnees in managed isolation. There are no new community cases.
Of these recent returnees:
One person arrived from Moscow (via London, Qatar and Brisbane) on November 14 and the other arrived from Dubai on November 14.
There are 37 active cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand. We have seen a large number of cases recovered this week, with 29 recoveries to announce today.
Our total number of confirmed cases is now 1654.
Yesterday our laboratories processed 8665 tests for Covid-19, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 1,208,091.
November quarantine cluster
Auckland Regional Public Health Service continues to follow up contacts from existing cases that are part of this cluster.
All 23 close contacts of Case A have now returned negative day 12 tests and all occupants of Case A’s apartment (the Waldorf Apartments) have returned negative day 12 tests.
The genome sequencing has shown that Cases A, B, C, D and E are all part of the same outbreak.
As we said yesterday, wide testing around these known cases allows us to have greater confidence that there are not possible undetected links in the chain of transmission.
To provide further reassurance, we continue to encourage anyone who visited a location of interest during the relevant time period to get tested – to ensure we can quickly identify anyone who may have been infected.
Anyone who develops cold or flu symptoms anywhere in the country should immediately get in touch with their health care provider or Healthline (0800 358 5453) and get a test.
Our systems have the best chance of staying ahead of Covid-19 if everyone who becomes unwell with cold or flu like symptoms, stays at home and seeks a test quickly, and all New Zealanders are keeping track of where they have been and who they have seen.
NZ Covid Tracer app
NZ Covid Tracer now has 2,372,000 registered users.
Poster scans have reached 119,725,227, and users have created 4,939,520 manual diary entries.
Please continue to use the app to scan into locations displaying a QR code – you never know when you will need to call on your contact tracing diary. The more every person scans, the safer we will all be.
