News
Watch today’s media conference with government officials and ministers.
The COVID-19 media conference with officials will start at 1pm.
Latest from Live Update:
- Minister of Health Chris Hipkins acknowledged the staff of ARPHS for their tireless work in the resurgence of the virus. “That work has made a significant difference and one of the reasons Auckland has been able to begin the transition from alert level 3 back down to level 2 with confidence.”
- Auckland Regional Public Health Service director William Rainger says there are two new cases in New Zealand today, one in managed isolation and one in the community.
- The case in managed isolation is a woman in her 30s who arrived from the Philippines via Hong Kong on 29 August, and tested positive at day three of her stay at the Distinction Hotel in Christchurch.
- The community case has been epidemiologically linked to the Auckland cluster.
- Since 11 August, the contact tracing team has identified 3162 close contacts of cases of which 2984 have been contacted and are self-isolating. There are 92 people linked to the cluster who have been transferred to quarantine facility, which includes 67 people who tested positive and their household contacts.
- There are seven people with Covid-19 in hospital – one in Auckland City, two in Middlemore, two in North Shore and two in Waikato. Five are in the ward and two in ICU – one each in Middlemore and Waikato hospitals.
- Sixteen previously reported cases are now considered to be recovered, all community cases.
- There are 115 active cases now, 36 of which are imported and 79 are community ones. The total number of confirmed cases in the country is now 1408.
- Dr Rainger says there are two key things that close contacts need to do – get a test even if you don’t have symptoms, and stay at home in self-isolation for 14 days, starting from the day you last had contact with an infected person. “Comply with isolation and be tested, this is critical for stopping the spread of the virus to other people if it turns out you do have Covid.”
- He says on any one day there are a 100 or more staff supporting contact tracing or helping in the response.
- Contact tracing involves interviewing cases, calling close contacts and informing them of what they need to do, he says.
Speakers:
Minister of Health Chris Hipkins
Auckland Regional Public Health Service Director Dr William Rainger
We’ll have a live stream of the conference here.
https://youtu.be/qD7DeohXRr0