Victoria was plunged into another week-long lockdown last night. Photo / Getty ImagesThere is one new case of Covid-19 in managed isolation in Auckland.
The Ministry of Health confirmed there were two Covid-19 positive patients in Auckland hospitals.
Yesterday afternoon a Covid-19 positive patient was transferred from the Jet Park quarantine facility to Auckland City Hospital.
A PPE use breach during the transfer of the Jet Park patient has led to a health worker being classified as a casual contact and asked to monitor symptoms.
The ministry said a review of the use of personal protective equipment by a health worker during the transfer of the patient to hospital did not “fully meet agreed protocols”.
“While the risk has been assessed as low, as a precautionary measure the health worker has now been classified as a casual contact and has been asked to monitor symptoms. They will be automatically tested in seven days’ time.”
The ministry said there were appropriate isolation and infection prevention and control plans in place at all the metro-DHB hospitals to accommodate Covid positive patients and hospitals remained safe for patients, visitors and staff.
Hospitals also regularly treated people from managed isolation facilities with a range of conditions unrelated to Covid-19, the Ministry said.
The UN worker from Fiji was the other case and remained in Middlemore Hospital ICU.
Following the snap lockdown in Victoria yesterday, recent returnees from Victoria have been asked to check locations of interest for Victoria and Western Australia.
Contact tracing staff have identified 2995 people who returned on managed flights from Victoria between July 25 and 30. They are required, under a section 70 notice, to isolate until a negative day 3 test.
Of those 2817 have so far returned a negative test; six have returned overseas and don’t need to be followed up; and 91 have been granted a clinical exemption.
Public health units and contact tracing staff are following up with the remaining 81 people.
People who had recently returned from Queensland were also reminded to keep checking the locations of interest and monitor for any symptoms of the virus.
Quarantine-free travel with Australia was suspended when the New South Wales outbreak spread and any eligible travellers needing to return to New Zealand from any Australian state – except NSW – were provided a 7-day return window which ended on July 30.
The state of Victoria was plunged into another week-long lockdown, beginning last night, after eight new community-transmitted cases were discovered yesterday.
Southeast Queensland is also in lockdown and NZ’s Ministry of Health has been continuing to remind those who had returned from Queensland on last week’s flights to keep monitoring locations of interest and be aware of any Covid symptoms.
Today’s New Zealand border case came via the UAE and was detected in Day 0 testing.
There was also one additional historical case to report in MIQ today.
They came from the UK via the UAE on July 26 and were a contact of a case. The virus was detected in day 6 testing.
As for the infected mariners, yesterday the Mattina remained in quarantine at a secure berth in Bluff.
As of Thursday morning, 13 of the original 21 mariners remained on board the vessel.
With the Delta variant of the virus sparking new outbreaks around the world, the Ministry of Health yesterday reported more than 2.06 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine had been administered by the end of Wednesday.
Of those, 1,258,000 were first doses and more than 780,000 were second doses.
On Wednesday, August 4, 45,802 doses in total were administered, made up of 32,230 first doses and 12,852 second doses – a record daily total.
More than 115,000 Mori have received their first vaccination. Of those, around 73,000 had also had their second vaccinations.
More than 78,600 doses had been administered to Pacific peoples. Of those, almost 50,000 had also received their second doses.
