Aucklanders urged to

Still likely thousands of yesterday’s Covid-19 tests yet to be processed by officials while health

New Zealand is not out of the woods quite yet when it comes to the current Covid19 community scare, despite assurances Aucklanders can travel over the long weekend.

Director general of health Ashley Bloomfield has deployed a health team to track down a cohort of 39 people, who had stayed at the Pullman Hotel alongside Covid-19 positive people, to confirm if they have been re-tested.

And there are still likely thousands of yesterday’s Covid-19 tests yet to be processed by officials.

To add to the Government’s woes, a cruise ship has been denied entry to New Zealand after a number of its crew members were denied visas as they weren’t classed as essential.

And the Government’s “premium” level isolation standards are again under pressure after it was revealed a MIQ worker had been sacked after a 20-minute “encounter” with someone staying at an isolation hotel.

But there is some good news – Aucklanders have been given the green light to go away for the long weekend.

“Our advice . . . is that there’s no reason why people’s travel plans should change,” Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told reporters.

But Bloomfield warned everyone to remain vigilant: “Alert level 1 is not alert level none”.

Close to 4000 Covid-19 tests from Auckland, taken on Thursday, had been processed as of last night; all were negative.

But there were still major question marks around 39 people who are now being tracked down by health officials.

There were 353 people who were at the Pullman Hotel while Covid-19 infected people were in the facility earlier this month.

Those people have since been released from the MIQ.

Some 312 of these people have returned a negative result and two – the two reported earlier this week in Auckland’s North Shore – were positive and are now in isolation.

There are, however, still 39 people Bloomfield is unsure about. “It’s still a working process,” he said when asked about the cohort.

“Most of [those 39] who have been re-contacted have said ‘I have had a test, or I am about to have a test.’

But he could not say for sure how many were left outstanding and how many were even in Auckland.

“Some people have not picked up the follow-up phone calls at this point in time – and so we’re doing additional things to track them down,” Bloomfield said.

But he is confident the public health units he has dispatched will track the stragglers.

Meanwhile, wastewater testing by ESR (Institute Of Environmental Science And Research) had by yesterday found no signs of community spread of Covid-19 but the crown research institute was still urging people to stay vigilant.

Testing around the area of the latest cases had not picked up signs of the virus, the institute said.

Two cases of Covid-19 were identified in Auckland this week after another was picked up a few days earlier in Northland.

Samples from Whanga¯rei