The current cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand have been linked to an Australian case who was taken to Auckland's Middlemore Hospital earlier this week.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield today gave a Covid-19 update on day two of the nationwide lockdown.
On Tuesday, it was confirmed a 58-year-old man from Devonport, Auckland, has the highly infectious Delta strain, putting the country into Alert Level 4 restrictions. He had also visited the Coromandel while infected last weekend.
Currently, the country is in a three-day lockdown, except for Auckland and Coromandel which are locked down for at least seven days.
Dr Bloomfield said there were 11 new positive community cases to report today - all in Auckland - bringing the total in the Delta cluster to 21. One case, an Air New Zealand crew member, is connected to the border.
Two people are in hospital, while the other 19 were being taken to the Jet Park managed isolation and quarantine facility in Auckland.
Twelve of the 21 new cases have been confirmed as part of the same Auckland cluster. A further eight were being investigated and expected to be part of the cluster. The air crew case is not expected to be linked.
Ardern said the current positive cases have been linked via genome sequencing to a traveller who arrived from Sydney in New South Wales on a managed red zone flight last month.
They returned a positive day one test on August 9 and was transferred from the Crown Plaza hotel to Jet Park that day. They were taken to Middlemore Hospital on August 16.
The current cases most likely came from the traveller. There was still a chance that additional information could emerge and there could be other possibilities, Ardern said.
The Prime Minister thanked the first positive case - the man from Devonport - for getting tested.
"If it wasn't for you getting tested when you did, this could be a much much more difficult situation.
"Having said that, we're prepared for cases to get worse before they get better, that is always the pattern in these outbreaks.
"But today, we believe we've uncovered the piece of the puzzle we were looking for. That means our ability to circle the virus, lock it down, and stamp it out generally has greatly improved."
Ardern said primary lines of investigation are staff at the Crown Plaza, staff at the Jet Park facility and staff involved in their arrival and transport. Middlemore Hospital is not part of the investigation.
Customs are investigating footage and identifying areas of interest and testing staff. "Nothing has eventuated from this line of inquiry to date," she said.
Staff at Jet Park and Crown Plaza are being retested.
Bloomfield said these new community cases were not unexpected.
"We would expect the number of cases to continue to grow in particular because of the large number of locations of interest and the mobility of these cases over the few days before the lockdown started."
As of this morning, more than 360 individual contacts had been identified, although this excluded contacts from large settings. "Through the day-to-day, that number will increase significantly," he said.
The New Zealand Herald reported today that two people were taken to North Shore Hospital overnight. One had worsening symptoms and the other had underlying conditions. One is aged in their 20s, the other in their 40s. Both are stable.
There are now about 70 locations of interest in Auckland and Coromandel. Wearing masks is now mandatory for supermarkets, taxis and while using other essential services including pharmacies and dairies.
Bloomfield said they were fielding a large number of complaints about people holding gatherings and they were being referred to police.
"As you can see from that update, level 4 is where New Zealand needs to be at the moment," Ardern said.
Government ministers would meet tomorrow morning to decide the lockdown level for the rest of the country outside Auckland and Coromandel. The decision will be shared at tomorrow's 1pm update.
Covid-19 modeller Professor Shaun Hendy told RNZ he is reasonably confident that the strict level 4 lockdown will be able to control an outbreak of the Delta variant, but warned that Auckland was likely to be in lockdown for longer than seven days.
- RNZ and NZ Herald
