Coronavirus: New Zealand has 11 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the community

Publish Date
Friday, 21 August 2020, 1:04PM

Today New Zealand has nine new confirmed cases of COVID in the community and two in managed isolation says Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield.

All nine community cases are linked to the current South Auckland cluster.

There are eight people in hospital, including one person in intensive care.

That brings the total number of active cases to 105 in New Zealand, with 89 in the community.

The total number of confirmed cases in New Zealand since the pandemic began is 1,315.

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On Tuesday a case emerged that was unconnected to the South Auckland community cluster, which appears to have started at the Mt Wellington Americold workplace on July 31.

The new case was a maintenance worker at Rydges Hotel who tested positive on Sunday during mandatory testing of all workers at managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities.

Genomic sequencing traced his case to a woman who flew back from the USA and stayed at the Rydges until she tested positive for Covid-19 on July 31.

The current alert settings - level 3 in Auckland and level 2 in the rest of the country - are in place until 11.59pm on Wednesday 26 August.

Cabinet will meet on Monday to review the alert levels for Auckland and the rest of New Zealand.

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