Today there are two cases of COVID-19 to report in New Zealand.

Of today’s cases, one is an imported case detected in a managed isolation facility and the other is a historical case detected during contact tracing. 

There are no new cases in the community. 
 
The imported case is a man in his 30s who arrived in New Zealand on 21 September from Russia via the United Arab Emirates.  He returned a positive result to day 3 testing and is now at the quarantine facility in Auckland.

The historical case was tested because they were a passenger on the recent charter flight from Christchurch to Auckland. They had returned negative day 3 and day 12 results in managed isolation. 

From additional testing and serology analysis, we have determined there is no link to the Christchurch returnee group. Any infection would have occurred overseas prior to the person returning to New Zealand earlier this month and they are no longer infectious. 

As we have previously said about historical cases, we know that some people can return a positive PCR test long after they have recovered from the illness and are no longer infectious. 

As a further update on this flight, all passengers have now been tested, except one – a young child. 

Aside from the previously reported 3 cases and today’s historical case, all results have been negative, with one pending.

In other updates: there are 32 people isolating in the Auckland quarantine facility from the community, which includes 15 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and their household contacts. 

Two people are in hospital with COVID-19 – one each at Auckland City and Middlemore hospitals. Both patients are in isolation on a general ward. 

Since August 11, our contact tracing team has identified 4,177 close contacts of cases, of which 4,170 have been contacted and are self-isolating or have completed self-isolation. We are in the process of contacting the rest. 

Our total number of active cases is 61; of those, 30 are imported cases in MIQ facilities, and 31 are community cases. 

Our total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is 1,475. 

Yesterday our laboratories processed 5,952 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 943,196.

An update on the three cases reported on 23 September

Public health services continue to contact trace, test and isolate close contacts of the three community cases reported this week.

As we have previously reported, these three people are part of the same family group – two had been in managed isolation in Christchurch and returned home on the charter flight, while the third is a household contact. 

There are now a total of 42 close contacts associated with these cases. 34 have returned negative test results and the remaining have been or are in the process of being tested. All are now self-isolating. 

Public health services in relevant regions where individuals may have visited while infectious have been in contact with businesses and will issue information to the public as appropriate. 

The National Contact Tracing team will continue issuing exposure notices through the COVID Tracer App where appropriate.

Anyone receiving an app notification as having visited a place of interest should be vigilant of their health and get tested if they develop symptoms.

Additional testing 

For details about weekend testing and where to get a COVID-19 test in the locations from which the travellers came, visit these links:

• in Auckland, visit Auckland Regional Public Health Service’s website
• in Bay of Plenty, visit the DHB’s website
• in Waikato, visit the DHB’s website
• in Wellington, visit Capital & Coast DHB’s website
• in Christchurch, visit Canterbury DHB’s website.