Covid 19 coronavirus: Mystery surrounds recent cases, but officials say risks are low

Three passengers have recently been detected with Covid-19 after flying out of New Zealand, yet health officials remain confident the virus isn’t circulating in the community.

The cases included a Korean traveller in New Zealand, who tested positive to Covid-19 after returning to South Korea, and a woman, who transited through Auckland on July 6 while en-route from Los Angeles to Sydney.

The most recent case then involved a woman who flew from Auckland to Sydney onboard Air NZ flight NZ103 on July 20.

She went straight into quarantine in Sydney where authorities tested her on her second day. Her results came back positive for Covid-19 on July 26.

The Auckland Regional Public Health team were now investigating and following up with the woman’s contacts.

This included about 30 family and friends, the woman – who didn’t want to be named – told the Herald on Sunday.

Most had already tested negative for Covid-19, but some were still waiting for their results, she said.

She suspected her own Covid-19 result was a so-called false positive.

“I’m just very healthy and very lucky to be honest. I think people need to be aware that there are different cases out there and you can be asymptomatic and still be positive,” she said.

The woman had earlier returned to New Zealand from the United Kingdom in March after the pandemic hit Europe. She believed she contracted the virus on her return flight.

She ended up spending three weeks in isolation and then New Zealand went into lockdown.

It meant she didn’t see friends or family for quite some time and consequently none of them later became ill in recent months.

Ministry of Health officials said it appeared the woman’s recent positive test for Covid-19 did appear to suggest she had been “an unconfirmed case” back in March.

“We will continue to fully investigate the circumstances of this positive result, including travel history,” the Ministry said.

They also said there was no evidence the Korean man had spread Covid-19 to Kiwis during his recent trip here.

The man was earlier in South Auckland from June 20 to July 20, Queenstown from July 1 to 4 and in and around Christchurch Airport on July 20 and 21, officials said.

“All domestic contacts of this case tested to date have returned negative results,” officials said.

As well as close contacts, the Ministry of Health also undertook targeted surveillance in Queenstown, South Auckland and Christchurch linked to locations the Korean man had been.

Officials reported a steady stream of people coming to the targeted Auckland testing centres in Northcote, Eden Terrace, Henderson and Wiri on Saturday.

Health officials had earlier said the risk of community transmission from the man was low and that he likely contracted the virus after leaving New Zealand.

Similarly, a woman who tested positive in Australia after transiting through Auckland from Los Angeles on July 6 has been found not to have left Auckland Airport.

“At this point, there are not considered to be any close contacts who need to be traced or tested but enquiries continue with both the airline and airport,” health officials said.

New Zealand’s official number of Covid-19 cases, meanwhile, officially increased by two yesterday to a total of 1212.

Both new cases were women travelling together.

They are aged in their 20s and arrived from Pakistan via Dubai on July 27.

Both had been in managed isolation in the Sudima in Rotorua and were now being transferred to the quarantine facility in Auckland.