Travel related: Alzheimers Marlborough and an air force rugby trip to US
The Ministry of Health has revealed two Covid-19 clusters are linked to Marlborough.
One relates to an air force rugby team trip to the United States, affecting nine people, and the other involves six people at Alzheimers Marlborough.
Yesterday, the ministry’s website said six of the nine air force cases were in the previous 24 hours, with one in the previous 24 hours at Alzheimers Marlborough.
It was reported that Marlborough had, in total, nine confirmed cases, and one probable, with no new confirmed cases announced since the first day of the national lockdown.
A Nelson Marlborough Health spokesperson said yesterday that the cluster cases were not new and had stemmed from one of the first confirmed in the region.
Marlborough recorded its first case 10 days ago, on March 21.
The spokesperson said only three cases related to the clusters remained in Marlborough, and all were in isolation in their usual place of residence.
All were related to travel and were not an indication of community transmission, and contact tracing had been carried out in each case.
No new cases were identified in the region yesterday, while one case was confirmed in Nelson – a woman in her 20s who had recently returned from Australia.
One coronavirus patient remains in Wairau Hospital in a stable condition, and one is in Nelson Hospital in a critical but stable condition.
Nelson Marlborough Health clinical director of public health Dr Stephen Bridgman said people should not confuse ‘‘cluster’’ with ‘‘community transmission’’.
‘‘A thorough investigation and contact tracing process was completed after the first of these cases . . . Investigation found that local cases in this cluster were related to travel.
‘‘All local cases have been in isolation since their return from the US, and I thank them all for working closely with the public health team to ensure they remain in strict isolation. People do not need to be concerned about these cases’ movements in the community,’’ he said.
The Nelson Marlborough District Public Health Service carried out the identification of close contacts of confirmed cases, and contact tracing for confirmed close household contacts, such as families or flatmates, in the region.
Other contact tracing, such as people on flights, was done by the new National Close-contact Service following the provision of names of close contacts by the local public health service.
Yesterday, Ministry of Health director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced 58 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the nation’s total of confirmed and probable cases to 647. There were no further deaths since a West Coast woman with the virus died on Sunday.
A community-based assessment centre (CBAC) is located at the old netball pavilion off Horton Park, at 29b Redwood St, Blenheim. It is open from 9am to 6pm, seven days a week.
Swabs were sent to Southern Community Laboratories in Dunedin and a result would usually be available within 48 hours. A person who had been tested would be contacted by their GP for test results.
Nelson Marlborough Health said 25 people were screened for coronavirus testing yesterday with swabs taken from 12 patients. Over the past week, 173 had been screened and 56 tested for Covid-19.