House viewing held at home of three Covid cases

Agent and attendees have been contacted

Three people attended a private viewing where three family members tested positive for Covid-19. The viewing took place at the Papatoetoe home of Cases I, J and K on Saturday before the Papatoetoe High School student and her siblings tested positive for the virus on Monday.

The schoolgirl stayed in a bedroom throughout the event, according to The Spinoff.

The viewing lasted half-an-hour and the real estate agent and three attendees were all contacted by Public Health officials on Tuesday.

They have all been tested and are awaiting their results.

The home is not regarded as a location of interest as the identities of everyone present is known.

There no new cases of Covid-19 in the community yesterday and three in MIQ, the Ministry of Health has reported.

One of the three cases in managed isolation is a historical case and not regarded as infectious.

.Of the 11 positive cases linked to Auckland’s February cluster, all remain in the Auckland quarantine facility.

Genome testing results now available for Case K has shown it to be the B.1.1.7 variant and again very closely related to the genome sequence for Cases A and B.

“This provides further reassurance that the cases from the additional household announced on Tuesday have not appeared from elsewhere in the community,” the Ministry of Health said.

“All cases that have been sequenced in this cluster are genomically linked and are connected to the cases at Papatoetoe High School.”

There were now 31 close contacts at Papatoetoe High linked to Case A, the ministry said.

One of these tested positive (Case D). All others have tested negative for Covid-19.

Kmart Botany contacts

A total of 15 staff members have been identified as close plus** contacts of a teenage girl, who worked two shifts at Kmart Botany and later tested positive to Covid.

Health teams lowered this number after further investigation on their

contact with the girl.

All these people have been contacted and are self-isolating, with eight returning a negative test so far.

“We have also been contacted by 1236 people who reported being at the store at the times of interest. They have been provided with public health advice,” the ministry said.

All have been asked to isolate for

14 days and be tested at day 5 and day 12 after their exposure to the case.

“We encourage anyone who has visited the store at the times of interest to contact Healthline. We expect this number to increase.”

Testing in Auckland

Since Sunday, February 14, there have been more than 53,000 community

tests for

Region.

The ministry said the rapid testing response played a pivotal role in managing the latest outbreak.

DHBS have boosted capacity at all the community testing centres in Auckland, with additional staff and extended hours.

Covid-19

in

the

Northern