What we know about fresh cases to emerge:
In just three days this week the number of people in the community with Covid-19 jumped from four to 29. The rapid spread of community transmission resurfaced after 102 days. Cases have emerged from Auckland to Waikato. Children, teens and adults have been infected as the virus was unwittingly carried around. Here’s what we know about the resurgence. Nicholas Jones reports THE FIRST CASES (four people)
The outbreak was discovered after a woman in her 50s went to the doctor with symptoms and was tested. Three family members then tested positive (her husband, also in his 50s, a woman in her 20s and a baby boy).
The wife worked at Finance Now on Dominion Rd and the husband at Mt Wellington cool store facility Americold.
The woman in her 20s and three other family members, including the baby boy who tested positive, had travelled to Rotorua and Taupo¯ from August 8-11.
The family checked into Wai Ora Lakeside Hotel at 3.30pm on August 8. They dined at the Herbs and Spice Thai Restaurant at 8pm.
Next day at 2.30pm they visited the Pak’nSave at Amohau St, Rotorua, before visiting Heritage Farm and 3D Art Gallery at 3.30pm. At 4pm they were at the Skyline Gondola and Luge.
On the morning of Monday, August 10, they drove to Taupo¯ and took a trip with Sail Barbary Eco Sailing, before going back to the Heritage Farm and 3D Art Gallery at 3pm. That night they ate at Burger Fuel Redwood Centre in Rotorua about 7 o’clock.
On Tuesday morning and on their drive back home they stopped at an undisclosed petrol station at 9am.
Cases announced on Thursday, August 13 (13 confirmed and one probable, total of 17 confirmed community cases)
Thirteen confirmed cases were announced by the ministry, and all were in Auckland and linked to the four people from the original family:
■ Three of the new cases are employees of Americold. Another seven cases are family members of those employees.
Another person is an employee of Finance Now. They were admitted to, and later discharged from, North Shore Hospital. Their family member also tested positive.
Cases have included school students:
A student at Mount Albert Grammar and a relative of the previously announced cases.
A student at Glamorgan School (a primary school) in Torbay.
A 6-year-old boy attending Southern Cross Campus.
A preschooler at the Taeaofou i Puaseisei Preschool on Winthrop Way, in Ma¯ngere East. The preschool is on the grounds of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa Ma¯ngere East Puaseisei.
■ Up to 300 people who attended church on Sunday have been urged to get tested for Covid-19 urgently after several members of a family at the congregation tested positive, including the preschooler’s parents and at least one other child.
Reverend Victor Pouesi told the Weekend Herald he understood that one of the preschooler’s parents worked with a family member of one of the initial familyof-four confirmed to have Covid-19.
Cases announced yesterday (12 confirmed and one probable, total of 30 confirmed community cases)
Yesterday 12 new confirmed cases were announced, and one probable case. The confirmed cases ranged in age from a teenager to an Auckland man aged over 70.
■ Two of the cases are in Tokoroa, one woman aged 15-19, and another woman aged 40-49. They are close contacts of one of the Auckland cases (an Americold worker announced as a case on Thursday) who stayed the night after also travelling to Morrinsville and visiting Kingswood rest home. Other family members in the Tokoroa home have tested negative. Iwi are helping work through quarantine arrangements.
All of the new cases are linked to the existing cluster, except for a confirmed case in Auckland City Hospital. That case was the last to be confirmed and investigations into it only got under way yesterday morning.
■ Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) students have been told a student studying in TechPark’s general engineering area based at South Campus,
O¯tara, has tested positive, but was not on campus while infectious.
And Snowplanet in Silverdale on the North Shore has confirmed a casual worker tested positive. The man last worked at Snowplanet on Wednesday, August 5, and then tested positive to Covid-19 on Tuesday, August
11.
“We’ve been advised by the Ministry of Health that it is highly unlikely he was infected at the time he was working for us at Snowplanet and so the risk of infection for staff and customers is very low,” said director of snow sports and slope operation Brad Alywin.
“Nevertheless, through caution, we’ve advised staff to isolate for three days, and if they are showing symptoms to get tested and checked.”
Two Noel Leeming stores on the North Shore, at Albany and Wairau Park, have also been told someone who tested positive visited at the weekend.