There are no new cases of Covid-19 in the community today.
This comes after a positive community case was detected in Auckland CBD yesterday.
In a press conference this afternoon, Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay said genomic sequencing shows that case has been directly linked to the recent case of a Defence Force employee at the Jet Park Hotel.
Minister for Covid Response Chris Hipkins said this means that the latest case does not point to an unknown border source. He said it means the risk of wider unseen spread is less likely.
"Though we do want to increase [testing] over the weekend and over the coming weeks to give ourselves greater assurance on that," he said.
New Zealand, including Auckland, will therefore remain at Alert Level 1. The CBD in Auckland will be re-opened, Hipkins said.
McElnay said genome sequencing has identified an identical genetic profile to that of the Auckland managed isolation worker referred to as Case A.
Testing of three close contacts of the latest case (D) have come back negative.
Auckland Public Health officials along with the Ministry of Health are now working to locate the source that links the movements of these two cases, including people they may have met or places they may have visited.
Meanwhile, four cases of Covid-19 have been picked up in managed isolation since yesterday, officials said.
They include one recent arrival who arrived from the Philippines via Hong Kong on October 31 – they tested positive at around day 12, McElnay said.
The other three tested positive in an MIQ facility but on further investigation they were determined to be historical cases and have now been classed as recovered.
Four previously reported cases are now recovered, meaning the current total of active cases remain at 53.
The total number of confirmed cases is 1639.
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