The probe into how the deadly Delta strain of Covid-19 got into the community from an Auckland MIQ facility remains a mystery and the investigation into the leak has hit a dead end.
The news comes as Director general of health Ashley Bloomfield revealed 15 new cases of Covid-19 in the community today.
Bloomfield also rejected suggestions Middlemore Hospital staff had made a serious error in how they handled the treatment of a patient at the hospital who later tested positive to Covid.
The managed isolation facility at the centre of the new outbreak, the Crowne Plaza, is to reopen tomorrow. The outbreak has been linked to cases from Sydney who isolated in the Auckland CBD hotel.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins couldn't guarantee there wouldn't be another outbreak caused by a leak from an MIQ facility but said health teams did all they could to investigate and remediate any problems they discovered.
Bloomfield backs Middlemore staff
Bloomfield did not accept staff at Middlemore had made a serious error in how they handled the treatment of a patient at the hospital who later tested positive to Covid.
He said he was not his job to second guess the clinical decisions made staff at the time.
He wanted to wait for what an investigation into the matter concluded.
Bloomfield said the teams at quarantine facilities were used to dealing with people infected with Covid 19 and were quick to refer them to hospital if they need treatment.
Bloomfield he said there was likely only a low risk to the community as a result of the Middlemore case.
He said the whanau of the man had been closely abiding by the level 4 restriction rules.
However, conversations were ongoing as to how the man and his family first contracted Covid and what link they had to the current outbreak in Auckland.
Bloomfield said the first step to covering the 29 staff at Middlemore Hospital who had to self-isolate as a result of the patient's Covid-19 positive test was to re-roster staff from within the hospital.
He said Middlemore had thousands of staff.
But there was also an influx of staff coming into Auckland from other district health boards across the nation and they could also be used, Bloomfield said.
Bloomfield said there was the ability to do rapid testing at some New Zealand hospitals. They can give a Covid test result within an hour or so but there was no capacity to do many tests that way.
That's why clinical assessments and asking relevant Covid questions remained important as a way of screening for patients with Covid entering hospital, Bloomfield said.
More than 80 percent of cases not vaccinated
Hipkins confirmed 702 cases in the current outbreak have no vaccine recorded, 115 have had one dose and 38 have had two doses.
Hipkins didn't believe the vaccine rollout had peaked in terms of how many people were going to get doses each day.
He said there had been reports that demand for vaccine doses had mildly eased off in some areas but that in Auckland demand was still very high.
Hipkins said there were more than 600,000 vaccine doses in the country and around 500,000 were currently at vaccine sites.
Bloomfield encouraged people to cancel vaccine bookings if they had already been vaccinated through a walk-in centre or brought their vaccine jab forward.
That would then free up the space for someone else because people not showing up to their bookings had played a part in slowing daily vaccine numbers, Bloomfield said.
25 mystery cases, 37 in hospital
The number of unlinked cases is now 25, but only two of today's cases are yet to be linked.
Bloomfield said five of the 20 cases yesterday were infectious in the community.
There are 37 cases in hospital, including six in ICU or HDU.
Of just over 38,000 contacts, Bloomfield said 87 percent had had a test.
There were 13,230 tests processed, with 8566 in Auckland.
"In many respects, that's the most important number," Bloomfield said of testing numbers in Auckland.
"Please if you have symptoms, do get tested."
He said people could leave their homes in Auckland to get vaccinated, but that shouldn't involve leaving the Auckland boundary for most people, such as those who live near the boundary and would normally cross it to get vaccinated.
Hipkins reminded everyone that record-keeping was now mandatory, and using QR codes was the easiest way to do that.
The onus to do this was on businesses.
"It will be hugely beneficial for us if we need to contact you."
Crowne Plaza probe hits dead end, MIQ to re-open
The Crowne Plaza had been subjected to extensive reviews, he said, but the exact chain of transmission from the person thought to be the index case remains unclear.
The hotel, at the centre of the latest community outbreak, will re-open as a managed isolation facility tomorrow.
"It may well still remain a mystery," Hipkins said of how the virus leaked from MIQ to the community.
There was a less than 1 percent chance that it came via someone standing in the lobby, and there was no rationale for shutting the atrium, Hipkins said.
Work was being done to improve the atrium and the public walkway next to the exercise area, he said, which would help alleviate public concerns.
How arrivals are processed is also being looked at, but Hipkins was satisfied that the Crowne Plaza will be reopened to accept returnees tomorrow.
The risk will never be zero, but expert advice was that it was "negligible".
Hipkins said a survey since May for those who had come through MIQ found over 90 per cent said they had been treated fairly.
The Government froze the MIQ vouchers while the outbreak spread, and then said there will be a more equitable voucher system so people didn't keep losing out to others using bots or scripts.
The new system is a virtual waiting room that people can enter, and then vouchers are allocated randomly - but more details are yet to be released.
MIQ workers were "true Kiwi heroes", he said.
The booking system remained a point of frustration, he said.
The virtual lobby and more notice of when MIQ vouchers would be released would help, he said, and the Government was looking to increase MIQ capacity.
