The Ministry of Health can confirm an individual who had previously been a guest at the managed isolation facility at the Pullman Hotel has tested positive for COVID-19.

This individual, who is asymptomatic, has been isolating at home in Hamilton since 30 January and previously returned 3 negative tests, the most recent one being on 2 February.  

The person is being transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility.

Based on our current assessment of the circumstances around this case we consider the public health risk to be low and people in and around Hamilton should not be alarmed. We are acting out of an abundance of caution. We are not advising any restrictions or cancellation of events. We recognise that event organisers may make decisions independently.
 
The positive result has been picked up on day 5 outside of managed isolation as a result of recent measures put in place for guests who have completed managed isolation at the Pullman.

As well as their routine testing at days 0, 3 and 12 while in a facility, there is a requirement for all Pullman managed isolation guests to self-isolate for 5 days following completion of their 14 days in managed isolation and return a negative day 5 test.

Today’s case reinforces the importance of the self-isolation and repeat testing strategy we have adopted around the Pullman managed isolation guests.

Case details
The person who has tested positive is a recent returnee from overseas and was in managed isolation from 16 January to 30 January.

The person returned a positive test result yesterday afternoon showing a high CT value, indicating it could be a historical case.

A further rapid test returned a CT value indicating the case may be active. Further investigation is underway to determine whether this may be an historical case.


Close contacts
The person who tested positive lives in Hamilton with two other people.
 
Both these people, deemed close contacts, have returned negative test results.

They have not displayed any symptoms and continue to self-isolate.


Testing centres
At this stage there are no exposure events or known locations of interest and the current public health risk is deemed to be low.

Based on the current information, the only people who need to get tested are people who are symptomatic.

This applies, as is usual practice, to people throughout the country. People who are well do not need to consider being tested.

Waikato District Health Board is taking a precautionary approach by expanding the testing capacity in Hamilton at the Founders Theatre site. It has also set up an additional testing centre at Claudelands Event Centre.

Details of these, and all other testing facilities in the region, are available on the DHB’s website.

People who are concerned, have symptoms or need information relating to testing should contact Healthline on 0800 358 5453.


New border case details
Further to the positive COVID-19 case above, there are 2 further cases of COVID-19 in managed isolation to report in New Zealand since out last media statement yesterday. One of these cases is deemed historical.

One previously reported case is now recovered. The total number of active cases in New Zealand is 64. Our total number of confirmed cases is 1,962.

The total number of tests processed by our laboratories to date is 1,556,265.

On Friday, 4,556 tests were processed. The seven-day rolling average up to yesterday is 4,237 tests processed.

NZ COVID Tracer
NZ COVID Tracer now has 2,555,321 registered users.

Poster scans have reached 171,934,743 and users have created 7,040,845 manual diary entries.

Since midday yesterday New Zealanders have scanned 612,116 times. The seven-day rolling average number of scans is 951,447. We thank all New Zealanders for their efforts to keep track of their movements.

The Ministry’s next media release is planned for 1pm on Sunday 7 February. 

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