No New Community Cases; Two New Cases Of COVID-19 In Managed Isolation; Response To Perth Lockdown

There no new cases in the community to report today. 

There are two new positive cases of COVID-19 to report in managed isolation since yesterday.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases detected at the border is one.

No previously reported cases have recovered.

The total number of active cases in New Zealand today is 33.

Our total number of confirmed cases is 2,245.

Since 1 January 2021, there have been 49 historical cases, out of a total of 429 cases.

Response to Perth lockdown

Quarantine-free travel between Western Australia and New Zealand has been paused after Perth and the outer-metropolitan area of Peel were placed in athree-day COVID-19 lockdown at 12:01am on Saturday 24 April (Western Australia time).

New Zealand health officials remain in contact with their Australian counterparts and are closely monitoring the situation in Perth.

Both countries have planned for this type of scenario and are following agreed Trans-Tasman bubble protocols.

Last night a risk assessment was completed by New Zealand Health authorities and the current risk to New Zealand has been assessed as low. Updates will be provided if there are any changes to the current risk assessment or advice.

As per our framework travel to the rest of Australia will continue, but New Zealanders in Australia are asked to follow local guidance and check for places of interest outside of Western Australia.

About 1000 passengers who have arrived in New Zealand on direct flights from Perth on 19, 21 and 23 April are being contacted and provided with advice. 

Information for anyone who is in New Zealand and has been in Perth or Peel since 17 April is on the locations of interest page on the Ministry of Health website, and on the Western Australia Department of Health site Locations visited by confirmed COVID-19 cases (healthywa.wa.gov.au)

If you have been at one of these locations of interest at the times indicated you should:

• stay at home or the accommodation you are staying in
• get a test five days after your exposure
• contact Healthline 0800 358 5453.

All other people who have been been in Perth and Peel should monitor for COVID-19 symptoms for 14 days after last being in the locations and, if symptoms develop, you should:

• stay at home
• get a test

In addition, people who were in Terminal 1 of Melbourne Airport between 7.00pm - 7.30pm on 21 April should:

• stay at home or in the accommodation you are staying in
• get a test five days after your exposure
• contact Healthline 0800 358 5453

If you're booked to travel between New Zealand and Western Australia in the next few days, check what you need to do with your airline.

Passengers flying to New Zealand from other Australian states will be required to complete pre-departure and arrival declarations advising whether they have been in Perth or Peel since 17 April, and whether they have visited any of the current locations of interest. If people have been to a location of interest they should stay at home, or in their accommodation, and get a test.

Testing information

The total number of tests processed by laboratories to date is 1,997,219.

On Friday, 4,511 tests were processed. The seven-day rolling average up to yesterday is 4,078 tests processed.

Testing around Auckland will continue this long weekend, with four community testing centres at Northcote, Henderson, Balmoral and Wiri open today.

The Balmoral community testing centre will also be open on Sunday and Monday.

Testing is also available at after-hours general practices and urgent care clinics over the long weekend. For testing locations in Auckland, visitAuckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS).

For all testing locations nationwide visit theHealthpoint website.

NZ COVID Tracer

NZ COVID Tracer now has 2,795,430 registered users.

Poster scans have reached 254,814,085 and users have created 9,530,632 manual diary entries. There have been 812,324 scans in the last 24 hours to midday yesterday.

Please remember to keep a record of where you’ve been while out and about this long weekend.

Scanning in has made it so much easier for contact tracing staff to very quickly trace the movements of close and casual plus contacts. It’s a critical element of New Zealand’s response to and fight against COVID-19.

Visitors from Australia are reminded that even if their phone region is set to Australia, they can download the NZ COVID Tracer app if they search for the exact name of the app or follow a working link.

We recommend people continue to scan NZ COVID Tracer app. The more we all scan, the safer we’ll all be. The data is stored on your phone until you choose to share it.

Next update

The Ministry’s next update is planned for 1pm tomorrow Anzac Day – Sunday 25 April.

© Scoop Media