There are six new cases of Covid-19 to report in New Zealand today, five in managed isolation and one in the community.
The new case in the community is the close contact of a staff member from the Jet Park Hotel who was confirmed yesterday to have contracted Covid-19.
Both are workers with the Defence Force, the Ministry of Health says. While the first case works at the quarantine facility, today's case does not.
They had a meeting together on Wednesday before today's case travelled back home from Auckland to Wellington.
That person has been taken to a quarantine facility in Wellington, while their five household contacts are self-isolating at home and awaiting testing. They reported developing mild Covid-19 symptoms late on Friday.
The person had travelled on Air New Zealand flight NZ457 on Wednesday. The Ministry of Health says nearby passengers are being contacted and asked to isolate until next Thursday.
Household contacts of those passengers are also being asked to self-isolate as a precaution while waiting for their close contact’s test result.
A review is underway to track the movements of the worker and all staff at the hotel are being tested.
The Defence Force said the person works at its headquarters in Wellington, which is closed for cleaning.
The partner of a man who sat near the infected person says they have received conflicting advice from the Ministry of Health.
Meanwhile, preliminary genome sequencing for the first staff member has shown links to previous strains of the virus identified inside the facility, the Ministry of Health says.
The sequence is different from the strain contracted by a health worker inside the managed isolation facility in Christchurch, where hundreds of international fishermen were isolating.
The investigation into how the Auckland worker contracted the virus is still ongoing.
One new case in managed isolation arrived from Italy via Hawaii on November 3 and tested positive on their third day in managed isolation.
Two others arrived from the United Arab Emirates on November 3 but did not travel together.
One case arrived from Romania via Doha on November 3 and also tested positive on their third day.
The other case arrived from Germany via United Arab Emirates on November 5 after appearing symptomatic.
The Ministry of Health says at this stage there is no suggestion of a risk to the wider public in either region but anyone who is concerned about their health is urged to call Healthline.
Testing is available for the public in community centres and urgent care facilities throughout Auckland and Wellington.
There is now over 2.3 million users on the Ministry of Health’s Covid-19 tracer app with a total of 109 million poster scans and 4.5 million manual entries.
The total number of active cases sits at 48 after one person recovered yesterday, while the number of confirmed cases to date in New Zealand is 1626.
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