No Community Cases; 4 Cases Of COVID-19 In Managed Isolation

26 June 2021

There are no cases of COVID-19 to report in the community in New Zealand today.

There are 4 cases to report related to recent returnees in managed isolation facilities since the Ministry’s last update yesterday.

Two previously reported cases have now recovered. The number of active cases in New Zealand is 21.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases detected at the border is 2. Since 1 January 2021, there have been 76 historical cases, out of a total of 557 cases.

Our total number of confirmed cases is 2,373.

New border cases in New Zealand

Australian traveller who visited Wellington

So far, 2,213 people have been identified as contacts of the Australian person who visited Wellington last weekend.

1,420 of those contacts need to isolate until a negative test result at day 5, while the remainder need to isolate for 14 days and have at least 2 tests.

Of those 2,213 total contacts, 1,441 have returned a negative result, 764 are either being followed up or are awaiting a test result and the remaining 8 have been excluded from testing.

There were 58 passengers on the Qantas flight QF163 which the Australian passenger travelled on to Wellington last Saturday. All have been advised to self-isolate. Of those 58 passengers, 35 have had a negative test result, and the remainder are expected to have results in the next couple of days.

An additional eight passengers, mentioned above, have been excluded from testing - so no further action is required in New Zealand.

New Zealand based flight crew from both the inbound and outbound flights have all been contacted and are being tested. Those crew members based overseas are being managed by overseas jurisdictions.

Last night, we reported confirmation of the whole genome sequencing, which has linked the Australian traveller’s COVID-19 infection to the current Sydney outbreak, and confirms that it is the Delta variant.

Wellingtonians and visitors urged to check locations of interest

Locations of interest in Wellington, visited by the Australian traveller to the city, are available on the Ministry of Health website.

People who have been at any of these locations at the relevant time should immediately isolate at their home or accommodation and contact Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice on testing.

There is a Health Act section 70 notice in place that places a legal requirement on all people who were at locations of interest at the relevant times to follow the instructions regarding isolation and testing.

Additional COVID-19 testing sites available in Wellington region

Demand for COVID-19 testing in the Wellington region is steady and at this stage there is further capacity at all sites this afternoon and tomorrow.

Yesterday there were 2,345 tests processed in the Greater Wellington region. That number is lower than the day before due to a large number of people already having had their day 5 tests.

In the Wellington region, testing priority continues to be given to individuals who have been at a location of interest at the specified time and individuals who are symptomatic.

At this stage, you do not need to be tested if you were not at a location of interest, unless you are symptomatic.

Anyone who was at a location of interest or is symptomatic should ring Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice on testing and how to book a test.

People are asked to book in advance for a test at all testing sites.

Information about where to get tested is provided on Capital and Coast DHB, Hutt Valley DHB, Wairarapa DHB, and Healthpoint.

Additional testing stations are being provided today in the Wellington region. The list of testing stations, and their hours, is provided below:

· Wellington Central, 196-200 Taranaki Street. Open until 6 this evening and will reopen at 8am tomorrow

· Te Papa pop-up, 55 Cable Street. Open until 6 this evening and will reopen at 9am tomorrow

· Wellington Regional Hospital, 17 Mein Street. Open until 5 this evening and will reopen at 8am tomorrow.

· Haitaitai Park pop-up, Ruahine Street. Open until 6 this evening and will reopen at 10am tomorrow

· Johnsonville Medical Centre, 24 Moorefield Road. Open until 5pm and will reopen at 9.30am tomorrow.

· Cannons Creek, 178 Bedford Street, Porirua. Open until 5 this evening and will reopen at 8am tomorrow

· Lower Hutt pop-up, Riverbank carpark. Open until 6 this evening and will reopen at 9am tomorrow

· Kapiti, Coastlands Shopping Centre. Open 5 this evening and will reopen at 12.30pm tomorrow. Bookings essential.

· Wairarapa, located at various medical centres

. Open standard business hours, and after-hour testing is provided at Masterton Medical Centre, 4 Colombo Road.

QR codes are available for the public to scan inside the testing tents and a reminder to people to scan in when at testing sites

Most people arriving at pop up testing centres travel by car and stay in their car during the testing process wearing masks. Those on foot should follow strict clinical protocols, maintaining physical distancing and wearing masks.

QFT travellers in Managed Isolation

Two people who arrived from Australia yesterday are now in a managed isolation facility in Auckland after it was discovered they were ineligible for Quarantine Free Travel to New Zealand.

One person, travelling from the state of New South Wales, transited to Auckland through another Australian port and was detected by Customs officials and transferred to MIQ.

The other traveller is an Australian resident who was cleared by Customs via the e-gates and realised soon afterwards they may not be eligible for QFT.

They rang Healthline for advice and have also been transferred to MIQ.

Auckland Regional Health’s Medical Officer of Health has deemed both passengers as a low public health risk. Both will spend 14 days in managed isolation and undergo standard testing while there.

Testing information

The total number of tests processed by laboratories to date is 2,261,870.

On Friday, 8,593 tests were processed. 2,345 of those tests were processed in the greater Wellington region.

The seven-day rolling average is 5,838.

For all testing locations nationwide visit the Healthpoint website.

This testing data does not include the number of tests processed by Waikato DHB, as systems remain down as a result of the cyber attack. The Waikato data continues to be recorded manually and monitored. The data will be added to the tally once systems have been restored. The manual data shows Waikato is continuing to process almost 200 tests a day since 17 May.

NZ COVID Tracer

NZ COVID Tracer now has registered users 2,872,687.

Poster scans have reached 291,700,452 and users have created 11,261,686 manual diary entries.

There have been 958,732 scans in the last 24 hours to midday yesterday.

We’re currently seeing a healthy increase every day in scanning. Your efforts to scan in are helping New Zealand’s response to COVID-19.

It’s incredibly important that people keep a record of where they’ve been. It can help support contact tracers in tracing potential close and casual contacts of people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

We recommend people continue to scan using the 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 planned update is at 1pm tomorrow

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