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

Publish Date
Saturday, 22 August 2020, 1:04PM

Today New Zealand has six new confirmed cases of COVID in the community the Ministry of Health has reported.

Four of the community cases are linked to the current South Auckland cluster.

The other two cases are under investigation.

There are nine people in hospital, including three patients in intensive care.

That brings the total number of active cases to 111 in New Zealand, with 95 in the community.

The total number of confirmed cases in New Zealand since the pandemic began is 1,321.

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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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