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There are six new cases of coronavirus in New Zealand.
The Health Ministry said all the cases had been detected at the border.
One of the cases, a person who traveled from the United States, turned out to be a landmark case.
RICKY WILSON / THINGS
Security personnel in front of a managed isolation hotel in Auckland. (File photo)
The other cases had traveled from South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom.
READ MORE:
* Covid-19: Ministry of Health reveals 10 new cases in two days at the border
* Covid-19 – Everything you need to know about the South African and UK variants that have reached the border
* Covid-19: where do the imported cases from New Zealand come from
No additional cases with the UK or South African Covid-19 variants have been identified in genome sequencing from the latest weekly sequencing conducted by ESR (Institute for Environmental Science and Research), the ministry said.
On Sunday, there were 10 new cases of the virus to report, all in controlled isolation.
New border rules went into effect on Saturday requiring travelers from the US and UK to have a negative pre-departure test.
Both the US and the UK are experiencing unprecedented spikes in Covid-19, with the death toll around the world reaching the grim milestone of 2 million.
Customs reported high compliance with the new rules over the weekend, the Health Ministry said.
The rule requiring a pre-departure test will be implemented in the coming weeks. Only travelers from Australia, Antarctica and some Pacific islands will be exempt.
Starting Monday, new additional requirements will mean that people arriving in New Zealand will have to take an additional test within 24 hours of landing. The existing tests on day 3 and day 12 will continue as normal.
Covid-19 Recovery Minister Chris Hipkins said that Covid-19 vaccines should be available to the public by mid-year.
Chris Hipkins said the launch of the vaccine should begin in the next few months.
The launch of the Covid-19 vaccine will be the largest mass immunization campaign in New Zealand history.
He said he was optimistic there would be a public rollout in the middle of the year, but it depended on when supplies arrived in New Zealand.
“We expect to see a reasonably significant number of vaccines, three different types of vaccines that will arrive sometime in that second trimester,” he said.
“The sooner they arrive, the sooner we can start making them available to the public.”
The ministry also said MedSafe was aware of reports of a series of deaths in older people in Norway who had received the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.
“In New Zealand, the safety and efficacy of vaccines is the priority. No vaccine will be available for public use in New Zealand until it has completed the Medsafe evaluation process and has been approved as safe for use here, ”he said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and ESR have been investigating the potential role of saliva PCR tests as part of further strengthening testing at the border.
ESR is about to begin Air New Zealand aircrew saliva testing as part of the investigation for Covid-19 testing.
The total number of active cases in New Zealand is 85. The total number of confirmed cases is 1906.
