Covid-19: Five new cases in managed isolation

There are five new cases of Covid-19 in managed isolation.

Three of the cases travelled from Fiji, one travelled from Russia via Singapore and another travelled from the UK, the Ministry of Health announced in a statement on Monday.

There are two historical cases in managed isolation.

New Zealand’s total number of confirmed cases is 2,570.

Further wastewater samples from Tauranga and Mount Manganui last Wednesday have returned negative results, said the ministry in the update in relation to the Rio De La Plat ship where 11 crew members had Covid-19.

Meanwhile, wastewater testing is scaling up, now reaching 26 sites in total.

The new sites include Whangarei, Gisborne, Tauranga, Taupo, New Plymouth, Napier, Palmerston North, Nelson, Dunedin and Invercargill, said the ministry.

Australia continues to deal with a growing Covid-19 community outbreak, with New South Wales recording 415 new cases and four deaths on Sunday.

NSW is now under a strict lockdown, with those breaking the public health orders facing fines of AU$5000 (NZ$5231).

NSW has been struggling with the re-emergence of Covid-19 in its community since June this year. Over the past few months, cases have increased rapidly.

Meanwhile, officials said it’s “unlikely” New Zealand’s Covid-19 vaccination roll-out would stop “entirely” in the event of an alert level 4 lockdown.

Last week, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins warned we may move into a level 4 lockdown if the highly infectious Delta variant made its way through the border.

Astrid Koornneef, the Ministry of Health’s Covid-19 vaccination operations group manager, said the ministry has contingency planning underway to keep the vaccine programme rolling out in the event of an alert level change.

More than 2.5 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered as of 11.59pm Sunday evening.

Of these, 1.58 million are first doses and 918,000 are second doses.

More than 138,000 Māori have received their first vaccination, while 93,000 doses have been administered to Pacific people.