Today there are two cases of COVID-19 to report in New Zealand.
Of today’s cases, one is an imported case detected in a managed isolation facility and the other is a historical case detected during contact tracing.
There are no new cases in the community.
The imported case is a man in his 30s who arrived in New Zealand on 21 September from Russia via the United Arab Emirates. He returned a positive result to day 3 testing and is now at the quarantine facility in Auckland.
The historical case was tested because they were a passenger on the recent charter flight from Christchurch to Auckland. They had returned negative day 3 and day 12 results in managed isolation.
From additional testing and serology analysis, we have determined there is no link to the Christchurch returnee group. Any infection would have occurred overseas prior to the person returning to New Zealand earlier this month and they are no longer infectious.
As we have previously said about historical cases, we know that some people can return a positive PCR test long after they have recovered from the illness and are no longer infectious.
As a further update on this flight, all passengers have now been tested, except one – a young child.
Aside from the previously reported 3 cases and today’s historical case, all results have been negative, with one pending.
In other updates: there are 32 people isolating in the Auckland quarantine facility from the community, which includes 15 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and their household contacts.
Two people are in hospital with COVID-19 – one each at Auckland City and Middlemore hospitals. Both patients are in isolation on a general ward.
