In a statement, the Health Ministry said there were now 31 cases associated with the current Auckland community outbreak.
“All cases have or are being transferred safely to a managed isolation facility, under strict infection prevention and control procedures, including the use of full PPE.”
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The ministry said the three in Wellington had recently travelled to Auckland and visited a location of interest there.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed this afternoon New Zealand would remain at alert level 4 until at least Tuesday midnight.
The Cabinet will meet on Monday to decide on the next move on the country’s alert levels.
The 11 new community cases reported today include three separate cases which were in family bubbles with previously reported cases, while two of today’s cases are also in a family bubble together.
“Public health officials are currently conducting interviews to establish how the new cases were infected and to determine further details of their movements. We will continue to release this information as it becomes available.”
Air NZ case separate
It also said the international Air New Zealand crew member reported yesterday had now been confirmed as a border-related case, and not linked to the Auckland outbreak, based on the results of whole genome sequencing.
The ministry said there were also two new cases in managed isolation.
It said almost 1200 individual contacts of the community cases had been identified, excluding contacts from large settings, such as Avondale College and the Central Auckland Church of Christ, which were still being assessed.
There were 27,899 tests processed across New Zealand yesterday.
The ministry said testing centres in Auckland had their busiest day ever, by more than 50 percent.
“More than 24,000 community tests were performed across Auckland yesterday, with more than 8000 at community testing centres and around 16,000 at general practice and urgent care clinics. Police are helping to manage traffic flows at sites.”
Earlier today North Shore Hospital took action after it was confirmed a patient who has now tested positive for Covid-19 was treated there. New Zealand Post also revealed a positive Covid-19 case this morning, a temporary worker at their Auckland Operations Centre in Highbrook.
The delta variant outbreak has been linked to a person who travelled to New Zealand from NSW on August 7 and transferred to hospital on August 16.
Locations of interest can be found on the Ministry of Health website as they become available.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
