9 new cases of COVID-19, 31 August
There are nine new cases of COVID-19 to report in New Zealand today.
Four are in MIQ and five are in the community.
Of the four imported cases, three females – one in her 30s, one in her 20s, and a child - arrived from India on August 22 and all tested negative around day three of their stay in managed isolation. They were each retested as a contact of a previously reported case, and subsequently returned a positive result.
The fourth person who has tested positive today is a woman in her 30s who arrived from India on August 27.
The five new confirmed community cases are all clearly epidemiologically linked to the Auckland cluster.
Three cases are linked to the Mt Roskill Evangelical Church. The other two cases are both household contacts of two separate previously reported cases.
Since 11 August, our contact tracing team have identified 2,621 close contacts of cases, of which 2,505 have been contacted and are self-isolating, and we are in the process of contacting the rest.
As of this morning we had identified 28 close contacts of the Tokoroa health professional currently in hospital, and 16 of those have already been contacted. We expect to contact the remainder today.
There are 128 people linked to the community cluster who have been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility, which includes 85 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and their household contacts.
There are 11 people with COVID-19 in hospital today; two in Auckland City, three in Middlemore, three in North Shore, two in Waikato, and one in Christchurch Hospital. The case in Christchurch hospital is a person who has been transferred from an MIQ facility. Nine people are on a ward, and two are in ICU – one each in Middlemore and Waikato Hospitals.
There are 15 previously reported cases who are considered to have recovered today. With today’s nine new cases, our total number of active cases is 131. Of those, 24 are imported cases in MIQ facilities, and 107 are community cases.
Our total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is now 1,387, which is the number we report to the World Health Organization.
Yesterday our laboratories processed 7,219 tests for COVID-19, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 758,027.
Mental health and wellbeing
Deputy Director General for mental health Robyn Shearer said it was really pleasing to see people making use of support available at a time when there was significant pressure in many of our communities.
‘We want people to know that there is help available if they need it – from face-to-face support, online and by phone and text. And that it is alright if you are not alright.
‘There is lots of advice on the Ministry of Health website and there are also links to a number of practical tools such as apps and self-help tools and online resources (and many of them have free data).’
