Bloomfield reveals how healthcare worker became infected with Covid-19 at quarantine facility

September 16, 2020

An investigation has now revealed an epidemiological link to the case.

Dr Ashely Bloomfield has revealed how a healthcare worker became infected with Covid-19 at an Auckland quarantine facility.

An investigation has now shown an epidemiological link to the case after it was previously genomically linked to the Auckland community cluster.

Before testing positive, the health worker attended gym classes at Les Mills Takapuna and went shopping at The Warehouse and Countdown stores in Milford.

"The link has been identified to one of the community cases at the quarantine facility who required hospitalisation and was assessed and assisted by the healthcare worker," Bloomfield said at today's 1pm briefing.

"A review is underway of the circumstances around the situation to ensure lessons are learnt and any improvements to processes are made. 

"Our national contact tracing system has recorded 85 close contacts identified from the three gym classes at Les Mills Takapuna – they have all been contacted and are self-isolating.

"To date, our system has recorded 80 of those close contacts as having returned a negative test result. There have been 195 casual contacts identified from the gym classes – of which 91 have been tested and returned a negative result.

"These numbers will continue to change as follow up calls are made and more information is gathered and assessed in our investigations," he said. 

It’s now been two days running that the only cases involved isolation facilities.

The update comes as today there were no new community cases announced and one new death from the virus.

The family of Nigel Huirama Te Hiko, 54, confirmed that he died yesterday afternoon, following the death of his brother Alan from Covid-19 earlier this month.

Nigel died at Waikato Hospital's ICU unit, and was known as a leader and historian for Ngāti Raukawa.

He lived in Tokoroa and contracted the virus from his brother, who worked at the Americold coolstore in Auckland - the source of Auckland's latest cluster.

Nigel's death brings New Zealand confirmed death toll from Covid-19 to 25.

SHARE ME

More Stories