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Health Minister Chris Hipkins said there is a “reasonably low risk” that a person who tested positive for Covid-19 will be contagious during a visit to an Auckland pub.
The Malt pub in Greenhithe is at the center of the situation, which has raised fears of a possible community spread of Covid-19.
The Auckland Regional Public Health Service has asked those in the pub, including the staff, between 7:30 pm and 10 pm on Friday, October 16, to isolate themselves and get tested.
Malt’s employer who was at the pub on Friday is one of two colleagues of an Auckland harbor worker with Covid-19.
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Users of Greenhithe’s The Malt were asked to isolate themselves and get tested after a person with Covid-19 visited them on October 16.
Hipkins told RNZ Morning report that the person who visited the bar on Friday was exposed to the virus that same day.
The person became symptomatic and was tested over the weekend, he added.
“That would suggest reasonably low risk, but no risk. There is no risk here.”
Hipkins said there is “no zero risk strategy” when it comes to Covid-19 and cases are expected to crop up from time to time.
ROBERT KITCHEN / Things
Health Minister Chris Hipkins said that while there was a “reasonably low risk”, the Greenhithe pub case was infectious at the time, “there was no risk.”
“If our contact tracing systems are running fast and we can isolate people who are positive case contacts, then the need to increase alert levels shouldn’t be as necessary.”
This was “absolutely” a good example of why it mattered that people still scanned using the Covid app.
“Scanning those QR codes, you might think it doesn’t make sense. Well, a lot of people who walked into that bar on Friday probably would have thought ‘oh, there’s no risk here.’ Well, actually, it turns out there is.
“Please keep using those QR codes.”
A pop-up community testing center in the Greenhithe area will be available starting Thursday for users to test. The location and hours will be available on the ARPHS website when confirmed.
This is an example of exposure notifications sent to NZ Covid Tracer app users who have been on a confirmed case of Covid-19.
The owner of The Malt pub in Greenhithe said Stuff On Wednesday night, he and his staff had just learned of the coronavirus case.
Household members of patrons at the pub that night should also be tested and stay home if the person in the pub becomes ill or exhibits any symptoms.
“However, if people in the pub that night become ill, even after a negative test result, they should re-isolate themselves and retest,” added ARPHS.
The health service said that people who scanned The Malt using the NZ Covid Tracer app on Friday night should receive a notification.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health announced 25 new cases of Covid-19, of which two, one close and the other casual, were linked to the dock worker.
Another 18 were imported and in managed isolation in Christchurch. These people are international fishermen linked to the same group of positive cases that were reported on Tuesday.
The last three were unrelated imported cases of recent returnees.
The last group in the country, the August group from Auckland, has been regarded as “squashed” but is technically still open. All patients in this group have recovered.
The cluster will be officially closed when there are no new cases for two incubation periods after all cases complete isolation. Two incubation periods for the virus are four weeks or 28 days.
The Auckland outbreak, which is considered the largest group in the country, began after a person in his 50s, who worked at the Americold refrigerator in Mt Wellington, tested positive for Covid-19 on August 11.
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Dr. Ashley Bloomfield announces 25 new cases of Covid-19, including 23 at the border and two linked to a dock worker.
More cases of the virus were detected in the worker’s colleagues and family, and from there, the group grew rapidly. Then several subgroups appeared, including the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship subgroup and the Grief Events subgroup.
In early October, the Auckland outbreak was deemed “squashed”.
