Covid-19: Four new community cases, Twenty-three locations of interest identified
New Zealand has four new cases of Covid-19 in the community, all connected to the case discovered yesterday, which is confirmed as the highly transmissible Delta variant.
The first positive case, a man in his 50s, was identified on Auckland’s North Shore on Tuesday afternoon.
The man, who was not vaccinated, visited the Coromandel Peninsula over the weekend and returned to Auckland on Sunday, Dr Ashley Bloomfield said.
One of the four new cases is a workmate of the original case. The other three are contacts of this workmate. Of these, one is a fully vaccinated health professional who works at Auckland City Hospital and had been working in recent days.
Auckland City Hospital has taken some immediate actions to shut down any potential spread. Those actions include stopping unnecessary movements between wards, testing all staff and patients on the ward the health professional worked on and standing down, testing and isolating staff on the same ward.
The Ministry is undertaking further analysis to see how it could be connected to cases they know about, following genome sequencing late last night confirming it is the Delta variant.
"These developments strongly reinforce the importance of the actions taken last night in the move to level 4 and underpin the importance of everyone keeping to the lockdown conditions," the Ministry said in a statement.
"The key message from the last lockdown remains relevant: ‘stay at home, save lives, be tested. This will stop any undetected spread in the community."
The Ministry will be providing its assessment later today about the extent of likely spread in the community and the length of time the virus may have been circulating in the community.
"Only leave your home if you need to, and please wear a mask when you do. We know of instances where people have picked up Delta simply by walking past someone with it."
"Please get tested if you visited a location of interest or have cold and flu symptoms. Eight testing sites are being stood up in Auckland (details below) and we will be able to share details of testing sites in the Coromandel later this morning and elsewhere in the country," they said.
People are urged to call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 and go to healthpoint.co.nz to find their local testing station, which will be updated during the day.
"We know that on the first day of testing it can take time for systems to be stood up and queues can be long. Please prepare to be in a queue for some time –wear a mask, take food and water with you, take a book to read or something to watch and please be patient and kind. Everyone is doing their best at testing stations, but the first day always tends to be busy."
Additional details and any further cases will be announced at 1pm.
