No Community Cases; 3 New Cases And 1 Historical Case Of COVID-19 In Managed Isolation; Mattina Update

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

There are three positive cases and one historical case of COVID-19 to report today in recent returnees in managed isolation facilities.

In addition to the nine previously reported cases, aboard the Mattina, there were three additional positive cases as at 9am today.

One further result is currently under investigation due to a high CT value; and three more have serological evidence of past infection and therefore are not deemed infectious at this stage.

Two further positive results aboard the Mattina were reported after 9am and will be officially added to our case tally in tomorrow’s update. We are reporting these out of cycle because of the high public interest in the Mattina.

The three remaining crew have returned negative tests.

One historical case at the border has been identified. A mariner aboard the Noble Island arrived on 12 July and was detected at the point of entry, before being granted shore leave. This mariner is not linked to others onboard the previously mentioned vessels. This person is currently quarantining onboard the Noble Island.

One previously reported case has now recovered. The number of active cases in New Zealand is 62.

Since 1 January 2021, there have been 100 historical cases, out of a total of 662 cases.

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

Our total number of confirmed cases is 2,479.

New border cases in New Zealand

Mattina Update

Health and border authorities continue to manage the situation around the Mattina.

The health and welfare of the crew, and wider public health issues, are being overseen by Southern DHB’s Medical Officers of Health, who are working closely with maritime, port and other government agencies.

All crew who have tested positive will remain quarantined on board the vessel at this time, where they will maintain the minimum functions at the port.

If those who tested negative return another negative test today, they will be transported to a Christchurch-based quarantine facility using a well-planned securely managed transport plan, including the use of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) protocols.

It is safer to manage the smaller group of negative cases, by taking them off the ship.

The two crew members who were transferred to hospital yesterday after testing positive, have since returned to Mattina, following a comprehensive assessment. They were assessed as not currently requiring hospital level care.

All IPC measures were in place, including the appropriate use of PPE for the transfer to and from the hospital. The Ministry expects to have further information about the source of those infections when whole genome sequencing is completed in the next few days.

Playa Zahara

Daily health and welfare checks are continuing for all crew members who remain onboard the Playa Zahara in quarantine in Lyttelton.

None of the 16 previously reported confirmed cases from the Playa Zahara have been included in our case tally at this stage, as they remain under investigation to determine if they’re current or historical cases.

Nau Mai Râ travel declaration

The travel declaration system was unavailable this morning following a planned system update at 6am.

The database was back in action by 9.30 this morning.

The database requires Quarantine Free Travellers to complete the form before departing from Australia. The Nau Mai Râ declaration asks the traveller for their travel plans and contact details to assist contact tracers if necessary.

While the online database wasn’t available QFT travellers were required to manually fill in the form upon arrival in New Zealand. This information will be retrospectively added into the Nau Mai Râ database. There was no impact to travellers being permitted to travel during the outage.

Travellers from Australia

Public health officials in New Zealand continue to monitor developments in Australia and are working closely with Australian counterparts.

Quarantine-Free Travel (QFT) with South Australia remains paused. However, anyone in the state who ordinarily lives in New Zealand is able to return on a managed return flight. A negative pre-departure test taken within 72 hours of flying will be required for eligible travellers.

QFT with New South Wales and Victoria remains paused. The situation in Queensland is being monitored.

Anyone who was in Victoria since 8 July is encouraged to keep checking the

Victoria Health website

for locations of interest which continue to be updated.

Anyone who was in Queensland since 28 June is encouraged to check the

Queensland Health website

for locations on interest.

People who have been at these locations at the relevant time should immediately isolate at their home or appropriate accommodation and call Healthline on

0800 358 5453

for advice on testing.

So far, contact tracing has identified 41 people in New Zealand who have been in locations of interest in Victoria and Queensland. Of those, 39 have had initial tests and returned negative results; one is not yet due for a test result and the other will be followed up – their test result is overdue.

Testing

The total number of COVID-19 tests processed by laboratories to date is 2,419,915.

On Wednesday, 7,554 tests were processed across New Zealand.

The seven-day rolling average is 5,681.

For all testing locations nationwide

visit the Healthpoint website

.

NZ COVID Tracer

NZ COVID Tracer now has 2,903,019 registered users.

Poster scans have reached 309,935,744 and users have created 12,108,014 manual diary entries.

There have been 645,741 scans in the last 24 hours to midday yesterday.

While we are currently in Alert Level 1, remember that doesn’t mean Alert Level none. Please continue to do everything possible to keep New Zealand free from COVID-19/

It’s incredibly important that people keep a record of where they’ve been, especially while people are out and about this long weekend.

Scanning in can help support contact tracers in tracing potential close and casual contacts of people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

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