There are 14 new cases of Covid-19 to report in New Zealand today – nine in managed isolation and quarantine hotels (MIQ) and five in the community.
The case numbers came via a press statement from the Ministry of Health. There was no 1pm press conference about the numbers but Minister for Managed Isolation and Quarantine Megan Woods and Air Commodore Darryn Webb are speaking to media. They said 97 per cent of staff working in MIQ were tested last week and no-one tested positive for Covid-19.
Our total number of active cases is 132. Of those, 33 are imported cases in MIQ facilities, and 99 are community cases.
The Auckland cluster now has 146 cases linked to it.
The five new community cases are all clearly epidemiologically linked to cases that are linked to the Auckland cluster.
Two cases are household contacts of previously reported cases, and the other three are all in a household that is linked to an existing case.
Of the nine cases in MIQ facilities, five are in Christchurch, three are in Auckland and one is in Wellington. They are all in strict quarantine arrangements.
The Christchurch MIQ cases are a man in his 20s, a woman in her 30s, two women in their 20s, and a man in his 40s, who all arrived on the same flight from India via Fiji on August 27.
The Auckland MIQ cases are a woman in her 20s and another in her 30s, both of whom arrived from India on August 23. The third MIQ case in Auckland is a woman in her 50s who arrived on August 26 from Qatar.
The Wellington case is a man in his 50s who arrived on August 18 from the United States and tested positive in routine testing around day 12 of his stay in MIQ.
Since August 11, 2743 close contacts of cases have been contact traced, of which 2676 have been contacted and are self-isolating, and we are in the process of contacting the rest.
As of this morning, there have been 51 close contacts identified of the Tokoroa health professional who has tested positive for Covid-19.
Of those, 48 have been contacted. They have either already been tested and returned a negative result, or are isolating awaiting a test.
There are 123 people linked to the community cluster who have been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility, which includes 79 people who have tested positive for Covid-19 and their household contacts.
There are 10 people with Covid-19 in hospital today; two in Auckland City, three in Middlemore, three in North Shore, and two in Waikato. Eight people are on a ward, and two are in ICU – one each in Middlemore and Waikato Hospitals.
There are 13 previously reported cases who are considered to have recovered today – all community cases.
Our total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 is now 1401, which is the number we report to the World Health Organization.
Yesterday, laboratories processed 8,599 tests for Covid-19, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 766,626.
Covid milestone
The NZ Covid Tracer app has reached a significant milestone today, recording over two million registered users, which is equivalent to half the population aged 15 and over.
There have also been an average of more than 1.7 million scans per day over the last week.
“This uptake is fantastic,” the Ministry said in its statement.
“The more people who get into the habit of keeping track of their movements, the easier contact tracing will be.
“The Ministry is continuing to receive several thousand QR code requests each day as transport operators work to get their codes in place by September 3.”
Nine new Covid cases were announced on Monday – four in MIQ and five in the community – and a warning from the Government that was not okay to keep children away from school as Auckland adjusts to “level 2.5”.
Auckland moved into level 2.5 at 11.59pm on Sunday night, freeing up workers to return to offices and workplaces and students to school. Masks are mandatory for commuters on public transport and all gatherings are limited to 10 people.
The rest of New Zealand has stayed at level 2 – a key difference being that gatherings are limited to 100 people.
Three of the community cases from Monday were linked to the Mt Roskill church and the others are household contacts of previously confirmed cases.
