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A relative of a dock worker with Covid-19 is among the nine people who have contracted the disease.
The latest infections, one of which was in the community, were announced by the chief health officer, Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, on Friday.
Flanked by Health Minister Chris Hipkins at a press conference in Parliament, Bloomfield said the new case in the Auckland community was a family contact of a man who tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this week.
RYAN ANDERSON / Stuff
The North Auckland community is on high alert after three community cases of Covid-19 linked to a North Shore business were confirmed this week. (File photo)
The other eight cases were in managed isolation facilities. Seven of them were part of a Russian and Ukrainian fishing team linked to a large outbreak at a Christchurch facility. They tested positive on the sixth day of their stay in controlled isolation.
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Health authorities expect more positive results in this group.
The other imported case recently returned from Iran via Dubai on October 19. That person tested positive for routine tests on day three during his two weeks in controlled isolation and is now at the Jet Park Quarantine Facility in Auckland
In total, 66 people currently have Covid-19.
That brought the number of confirmed cases from February to 1567.
SCREENSHOT
Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, flanked by Health Minister Chris Hipkins, said there were nine new cases of Covid-19 on Friday.
The announcement of the new cases comes after New Zealand recorded 25 new cases on Wednesday, the most new infections in a day since April.
Wednesday’s 25 cases included two colleagues of an Auckland-based marine electronics technician who tested positive for the virus on October 16.
The couple, and some of their domestic contacts, went to various public places on the North Shore before realizing they had contracted Covid-19.
One of the men went to the Greenhithe The Malt pub hours after being exposed to the virus while at his workplace, Wright Technologies in Rosedale.
Customers who were in the bar between 7:30 PM and 10:00 PM on 16 October were urged to get a swab.
Bloomfield said 270 people had been tested at a pop-up testing facility in the area.
That was “a great response from the local community”, however it was disappointing that very few patrons had scanned a QR code in the pub.
David White / Stuff
The Malt Bar in Greenhithe was closed for a deep cleaning after a person with Covid-19 visited it hours after being exposed to the virus.
Bloomfield said The Malt’s clients should get tested and remain isolated until they get their result.
He urged people not to be complacent and to continue to keep track of where they had been.
“What we’ve done doesn’t matter at all. It’s what we do now that really counts, “he said.
In his first Covid-19-related press conference since the 2020 general election, Hipkins ruled out that the use of the Covid tracking app is mandatory for now.
This would be too difficult to enforce at alert level 1, he said.
However, I would not rule out making it mandatory in the future.
Hipkins echoed Bloomfield’s message about staying alert before Labor weekend, pleading with people to stay home if they were sick and get tested for Covid-19 symptoms.
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