There are two new cases of COVID-19 to report in New Zealand today.
Both are imported cases detected in a managed isolation facility.
One person arrived on a flight from Ukraine on 23 September via the United Arab Emirates.
The other person arrived in New Zealand on a flight from Pakistan via the United Arab Emirates on 23 September. They were on the same flight but not travelling together. Both individuals tested positive as a result of tests done around day three and have been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility.
There are no new cases in the community.
There are 18 people isolating in the Auckland quarantine facility from the community, which includes 9 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and their household contacts.
One person is in hospital with COVID-19 at Middlemore hospital. The patient is in isolation on a general ward.
Since August 11, our contact tracing team has identified 4,079 close contacts of cases, of which 4,079 have been contacted and are self-isolating or have completed self-isolation.
Our total number of active cases is 55; of those, 29 are imported cases in MIQ facilities, and 26 are community cases.
Our total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is 1,479, which is the number we report to the World Health Organization.
Yesterday our laboratories processed 3,636 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 955,590.
We all need to remain vigilant these school holidays to stop any spread of COVID-19.
While many people will be enjoying a break over the next two weeks, it’s also important to remember that the COVID-19 virus exploits any opportunity to spread.
Please don’t let your guard down, and remember:
We’ll be working closely with all district health boards to reinforce this messaging over the school holiday period.
Public health services continue to contact trace, test and isolate close contacts of the three community cases reported this week.
There are a total of 44 close contacts associated with these cases. All are now self-isolating. All but one have returned negative test results and the remaining result is pending.
There are now 2,283,600 users registered on NZ COVID Tracer.
The app has recorded a total of 78,171,245 poster scans, and users have created 3,412,520 manual diary entries in NZ COVID Tracer.