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There are 12 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand.
The Director of Public Health for the Ministry of Health, Dr. Caroline McElnay, broke the news at 1 pm.
The 12 cases were found in controlled isolation. The ages ranged from a child under 1 to a woman over 70, according to the Health Ministry website.
McElnay said 10 of the cases arrived from India on flight AI1354 on Sept. 26. All 10 tested positive around the third day of their stay.
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He said they were distributed throughout the flight from rows 14 to 41.
McElnay said this reflected the high levels of Covid-19 that were showing up around the world. He also highlighted the importance of New Zealand’s border measures.
RYAN ANDERSON / Stuff
For the fifth day in a row on Wednesday, no new community coronavirus cases were reported (file photo).
The other cases were a person who arrived from the United States on September 26 and another who arrived from the Philippines via Taiwan on September 23.
This person was tested as a contact for another case and tested positive on September 30.
All 12 cases have been transferred to Auckland’s quarantine facility, Jet Park.
McElnay said the results of the passengers on the India flight are not yet ready, but the ministry will look to see if there is anything that suggests transmission on the flight.
The theory at the moment was that all 10 travelers were infected in India before boarding the flight.
The flight crew was in controlled isolation for two days before leaving the country and returning to India.
McElnay said New Zealand had seen flights with multiple cases before. She said cases on the same flights in the past have been reported on different days, but this could be the highest number reported on a day on the same flight.
It is possible that there are more cases related to this flight.
There are 14 people from the community under quarantine in Auckland; five of them tested positive, the rest are domestic contacts.
A person remains isolated in a hospital in a general ward.
Over 4,000 close case contacts have been identified, most have been contacted and have completed or are completing isolation.
Three cases have been recovered. There are currently 53 active cases of the virus, 42 of which are imported.
There are 1,492 confirmed cases that have been reported to the World Health Organization.
More than 5,000 tests were completed on Wednesday, which means the total number of tests completed is close to 1 million.
On Wednesday, only one new case of coronavirus was announced and it was detected in controlled isolation.
New Zealand has been without a community case for six days.
