No Community Cases; 2 New Cases Of COVID-19, One Historical Case, In Managed Isolation

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

There are two new cases of COVID-19 to report in recent returnees, and also one historical case, in managed isolation facilities.

Since 1 January 2021, there have been 108 historical cases, out of a total of 697 cases.

Four previously reported cases have now recovered. The number of active cases in New Zealand is 45.

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

Our total number of confirmed cases is 2,514.

New border cases in New Zealand

Historical cases identified at the border

*Day 12 cases are routinely investigated as a check against possible transmission within the facility.

Update on patient from Fiji

The medevac flight for a patient from Fiji who has tested positive for COVID-19 proceeded yesterday as arranged.

The patient was last night safely transported by ambulance to Middlemore Hospital, under strict infection prevention and control procedures. Flight crew and ambulance staff used full PPE, as is regularly used to transport people arriving from overseas to hospital.

The patient remains in a dedicated, secure ICU unit. There are appropriate isolation and infection prevention and control plans in place at all the metro-DHB hospitals, including Middlemore Hospital, where this patient is being managed.

Requests for medical treatment in New Zealand from overseas jurisdictions, particularly in the Pacific, are common. Every request is considered, carefully taking into account factors such as the clinical needs of the patient, whether safe transport can be arranged and the availability of appropriate care in New Zealand.

The Ministry is asking media to please respect this patient’s privacy in further reporting on this matter.

Taranaki Update

Daily sampling from the New Plymouth wastewater treatment plant, along with further samples from sites around the Taranaki region continues this week. There have been no subsequent detections of the virus to date. Community testing is also continuing.

The Ministry thanks everyone who has taken a test and we continue to encourage anyone in Taranaki with symptoms to be tested. We are also recommending that any anyone who has recently been in Australia who is now in Taranaki to get tested even if they don’t have symptoms.

Additional testing capacity remains open in New Plymouth to support potential demand. Anyone with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 should call Healthline (

0800 358 5453

) for advice on getting a test. For Taranaki testing locations please visit

the Taranaki DHB website

.

Mattina Update

The Mattina remains in quarantine in Bluff and is inaccessible by the public.

Two of the COVID-19 positive mariners remain in Southland Hospital and are in a stable condition, after a second transfer yesterday.

The transfers were done in a carefully planned and co-ordinated way, using all appropriate Infection, Prevention and Control protocols, working with St John Ambulance and other hospital staff, under the guidance of Southern DHB Medical Officers of Health.

Viking Bay

Sixteen of the 20 crew members are now back aboard the Viking Bay, which remains in quarantine at Queens Wharf in Wellington.

Four of the crew members remain in managed isolation in Wellington.

Deep cleaning of the vessel is being undertaken in coming days and the vessel is expected to depart next week.

Testing

The total number of COVID-19 tests processed by laboratories to date is 2,473,000.

On Thursday, 7,189 tests were processed across New Zealand.

The seven-day rolling average is 6,664.

For all testing locations nationwide

visit the Healthpoint website

.

It is pleasing to see testing in recent days have remained steady.

Testing in the community remains one of the best ways to ensure the potential for COVID-19 in the community is detected as soon as possible.

Please continue to get tested if you develop any symptoms and stay home from work if you are feeling unwell.

NZ COVID Tracer

NZ COVID Tracer now has 2,907,828 registered users.

Poster scans have reached 314,627,905 and users have created 12,326,668 manual diary entries.

There have been 599,933 scans in the past 24 hours to midday yesterday.

New features in NZ COVID Tracer

The latest update of the NZ COVID Tracer app features reminders, diary icons and the ability to save and use previous scans – all designed to make it easier to keep your digital diary up to date.

The enhancements, available from today, include:

· The ability to use a previous scan and save locations you go to frequently to manually backfill your diary.

· Reminder notifications where individuals have not scanned or added a location to their diary recently.

· An indicator on the scan screen making it easier to see when Bluetooth tracing is inactive.

· Illustrated guides that make it easier to understand how the app and features work.

This update is part of our ongoing and regular improvements to the app to make it easy to use, and more useful, since it was launched last year.

We encourage all New Zealanders to keep track of where they have been. Use of the NZ COVID Tracer app or a manual diary remain critical tools in helping to quicken our contact tracing efforts and stop the spread of the virus.

Next update

The Ministry’s next update is scheduled for 1pm Sunday.

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