One new confirmed case of COVID-19

There is one new case of COVID-19 to report in managed isolation today, in addition to the four cases in the community in Auckland that were announced yesterday.

There are also an additional four probable cases, linked to the four confirmed cases that we announced yesterday. All of those probable cases are awaiting their test results, but contact tracing is already underway.

The case at the border we are reporting today is a woman in her 50s who arrived in New Zealand on August 7 from Islamabad via Dubai. She has been in managed isolation at the Novotel Ellerslie and tested positive around day 3 of her stay. She has now been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility.

That brings New Zealand’s total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 to 1,225, which is the number we report to the World Health Organization.

There are five previously reported cases now considered to have recovered from COVID-19, so the number of active cases in New Zealand remains at 22.

There is no one in New Zealand receiving hospital-level care for COVID-19.

Yesterday our laboratories processed 4,225 tests for COVID-19.

This does not include the large number of test numbers from today.

That brings the total number of tests completed to date over the half a million mark – 502,705. There were 888 swabs taken in managed isolation and quarantine facilities yesterday.

Rotorua

We have been talking with the family that visited Rotorua to understand their exact movements during their time there.

Based on the information we do have, we are confident that the visit to Rotorua poses a low risk to others who may have been at places the family visited or stayed at. We do not believe there are any close contacts of the family from the trip to Rotorua.

While information is still being verified, we know the family visited a number of eateries as well as at least two tourist attractions.

The family stayed at the Wai Ora Lakeside hotel while they were in Rotorua, checking in on the on 8th August, checking out on the 11th August.

The family visited the Skyline Gondala and Lodge on Sunday 9 August between 4 and 6 pm.

They also visited the Heritage Farm and Art Gallery on 10 August between 3 and 4.30pm.

Anyone in the vicinity during that time should pay extra attention to their health and stay at home if they become unwell and seek medical advice to get a test.

As we have more locations confirmed, we will publish these on the Ministry website and notify media.

Health order

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield today issued an order as New Zealand’s national health officer, directing the following people to immediately self-isolate at their usual homes:

- Employees, contractors, and visitors to the following premises in the last 14 days:

• Americold in Mount Wellington; and
• Finance Now (Dominion Road branch).

Those people must stay home and isolate until they have been contacted by the national health service responsible for contact tracing.

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