No new cases but death toll updated

There are no new cases of

Covid-19 in the community or managed isolation.

However, another Covid-19 death has been confirmed – a person who died in North Shore Hospital over the weekend – increasing New Zealand’s death toll to 26.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield gave the update yesterday afternoon.

It comes after three community cases of Covid-19 were announced on Sunday. As a result, Auckland was placed into an alert level 3 lockdown.

The rest of Aotearoa is now at Covid-19 alert level 2.

More than 10,500 Covid-19 swabs were taken on Monday, and Bloomfield said the negative results that had come through were ‘‘encouraging’’.

The source of the latest community cases is still being investigated, and the trio, a family, are now in the Auckland quarantine facility, Jet Park.

They have the United Kingdom variant of the virus, which is more transmissible than other strains.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that because genome sequencing showed no link to a Covid-19 case in a managed isolation and quarantine facility (MIQ), transmission may have come from a passenger in transit at the airport or from international air crew.

‘‘We’ll be reaching out to our international counterparts and airlines to match the sequencing we’ve had,’’ Ardern said.

Serology testing is also being carried out at Papatoetoe High School, where one of the family members was a student, and among the mother’s coworkers at LSG Sky Chefs.