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The Ministry can confirm today two new cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand related to the border as a result of recent travel from the UK. Both cases are connected. Further details will be provided at the stand up.
The Ministry of Health’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield will provide an update to the media today at 3pm.
The ministry said both cases were connected, but offered little further information, leaving questions for Dr Bloomfield’s media briefing.
Dr Bloomfield said they were both women aged in their 30s and 40s respectively, and were from the same family who arrived in New Zealand from the UK on 7 June.
“A new case is something we hoped we wouldn’t get, but it’s also something we expected and have planned for.”
They traveled from the UK via Doha and then Brisbane. Australian authorities were contacted to trace people in Australia, Dr Bloomfield said.
One had mild symptoms, the other was symptom free. Both had gone into self-isolation in the Wellington region.
- If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP – don’t show up at a medical centre
He said they had applied for the exemption on Friday 12 June and were allowed to travel to Wellington in a private vehicle to see their dying parent the following day, on 13 June. The parent died that night.
“They were in a managed isolation hotel in Auckland and were permitted on compassionate grounds to leave managed isolation to travel to Wellington via private vehicle.”
He said there one only one additional family member who may be at risk, and they were being tested and isolated. Other potential contacts included people on the same flight from Brisbane and people who were in or had been in the same managed isolation facility in Auckland, including staff.
“There was an agreed plan in place as a part of the approval process for the compassionate exemption and that included the travel arrangements.”
“The family has asked for their privacy to be respected.”
Staff at the managed isolation facility – the Novotel Ellerslie hotel in Auckland -who had contact with the pair would be stood down and tested, Dr Bloomfield said.
The pair “must have” had a vehicle that was able to make the journey without stopping for fuel, Dr Bloomfield said, and made the journey without using public facilities.
“I won’t go into details but there is a lot of empty roadside between here and Auckland.”
He said the situation exemplified why compassionate exemptions did not extend to funerals or tangihanga where there might be large groups of people.
From now on, people must return a negative result before being allowed an exemption, he said.
“We should not be complacent, we should remain vigilant. There is a pandemic raging outside our shores.”
He said there were several hundred New Zealanders entering the country on most days.
“We expected more cases, good thing here is we’re maintaining, I believe, what are good rates of testing in the community given we’ve got very low rates of influenza-like illness in our community.”
He said contact tracing was good and this would be a good test for it. Stress testing of the contact tracing system would also begin shortly.
The new cases followed 24 consecutive days with no new cases in New Zealand, and eight days since the recovery of the last active case.