Covid-19 cases from US, UK and South Africa in MIQ
There were six new cases of Covid19 in New Zealand yesterday, all in managed isolation.
Ministry of Health officials provided the update.
Of the six, two are from the US, three are from the UK and one is from South Africa.
Four of the cases — the three from the UK and one from South Africa — are in quarantine in Auckland. The two from the US are in Christchurch.
One of the new cases has been classified as historical and deemed not infectious, the ministry said.
Three previously reported cases have now recovered, meaning the total number of active cases in New Zealand is 85.
They are all in isolation.
“No additional UK or South Africa variants have been identified in genome sequencing from the latest weekly sequencing run by ESR and reported to the ministry,” a spokesperson said.
“Due to a post-holiday season related lag, positive samples from
Auckland were not included in this sequencing run and will be sequenced and reported on Wednesday.”
The spokesperson also said that all travellers arriving into New Zealand — excluding Australia, Antarctica, and some Pacific nations — are now required to have day 0/1 tests and stay in their rooms until the result is known. “This requirement will be progressively introduced over three days starting today.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has revealed it has been contacted by Fiji’s health authorities due to two people presenting positive for Covid19 on day 12 testing in Nadi.
The two passengers had transited through Doha, Brisbane via Auckland on December 24 the Ministry said.
“There are robust procedures in place for passengers transiting through New Zealand at our airports. Transiting passengers remain airside at the airport and border staff apply the same precautions to them that they do to all passengers, including PPE, physical distancing and infection prevention and control procedures.”
The ministry confirmed that of the passengers from the Doha/brisbane flight whose final destination was Auckland, all have completed managed isolation with no positive cases reported.