No new Covid-19 cases in the community for second straight day

February 25, 2021
Covid-19 (file).

There are no new cases of Covid-19 in the community for the second day in a row, the Ministry of Health has announced.

The consecutive days of no community cases comes after three new community cases linked to the Papatoetoe High School cluster were confirmed on Tuesday.

Genome testing results now available for Case K has shown it to be the B.1.1.7 variant and very closely related to the genome sequence for Cases A and B.  

Last night, health officials said all customers at the same stores as one of Tuesday's Covid-19 cases were upgraded to “close contacts”, meaning they're required to isolate for 14 days and get tested twice.

Fifteen Kmart staff members have been identified as close plus contacts and are self isolating, with eight negative test results so far from this group.

The Ministry of Health has also been contacted by 1236 people who reported being at the store at the times of interest. They have been asked to isolate for 14 days and get tested at day five and day 12.

The ministry expect that number to increase. 

There was a private home viewing, on behalf of the homeowners, at the residence of the family (Cases I, J, K) on Saturday 20 February.

The agent and three people who attended have been tested and are awaiting their results. 

The home is not being regarded as a location of interest as the identities of everyone present is known.

Thirty of 31 close contacts of Case A at Papatoetoe High School tested negative with Case D the 31st person.

As of 8am this morning there have been 1,525 casual plus contacts identified at Papatoetoe High School. Excluding Cases E, I and J, 1,490 have returned at least one negative test result since 15 February. All these casual plus contacts have been asked to have an additional test on or after 22 February.

All 11 cases associated with the cluster remain in the Auckland quarantine facility.

There were an additional three cases recorded in New Zealand's managed isolation and quarantine facilities.

The case that arrived on February 11 from Mexico via the US is a historical case and not considered infectious.

The second case arrived from the UAE on February 18, with the third case arriving from Papua New Guinea via Australia on February 20 and tested positive during routine day three testing.

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