A returnee who left managed isolation after being considered recovered from Covid-19 was sent back to quarantine after testing positive again, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said today.
"We did have one person who had been a case in managed isolation, had recovered and been discharged, was then assessed at hospital again and as part of their assessment a Covid-19 test was taken, that test was positive.
"He was returned to managed isolation, actually the quarantine facility in Auckland, to be reassessed by the clinician who assessed that the positive test was a result of residual virus which we see, and that has residual symptoms due to an underlying condition."
Dr Bloomfield didn't specify when the incident took place, but said that guidelines around when someone is considered recovered had since ramped up.
"Currently we have used the definition of at least 10 days since onset of symptoms or since a positive test if they we asymptomatic and at least 48 hours without symptoms. We are now going to increase that to at least 72 hours without symptoms before they'll be classified as recovered."
Dr Bloomfield said he wasn't aware of any other positive cases having been outside of managed isolation or quarantine facilities since the virus was eliminated in New Zealand.
"We've got no evidence of community transmission at the moment," he said, adding that there had been tens of thousands of tests in the community in the past few weeks with no positive results.
It has been 76 days since community transmission in New Zealand.
The family are in Christchurch, Dr Ashley Bloomfield says.
Today there was one new case of a virus . It is a child in Christchurch whose parents have already been infected.
The family arrived from Italy on July 4 and had been staying at the Commodore Airport Hotel in Christchurch.
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