Covid 19 coronavirus: the Ministry of Health will provide updated information on new cases

The Ministry of Health is ready to reveal an update on the new cases of Covid-19 today.

The ministry will issue a statement around 1:00 p.m.

Health officials said yesterday that genome sequencing results show a link between two infected returnees at the Grand Mercure MIQ Auckland facility and that the source of the infection is under investigation.

The returnees were staying in separate rooms on different floors. They arrived on separate flights two days apart. At this stage, no other cases have been found within the facility linked to these two cases, but the investigation continues.

Some 5,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccination are expected to be administered across the North Island this weekend, including in hotels and medical clinics.

Now about 50,000 doses have been administered nationwide, Chief Health Officer Dr. Ashley Bloomfield said yesterday.

Grand Mercure Research

The Grand Mercure in central Auckland is under investigation due to the possibility of an on-site transmission.

Hundreds of people who have completed managed isolation in the past 10 days at the Grand Mercure have been asked to retest and self-isolate.

Bloomfield said efforts were underway to contact the 250 people who had left since March 10, while 190 people had been contacted as of 9 a.m. Friday.

The chief of managed isolation and quarantine, Brigadier General Jim Bliss, said the investigation would focus on off-site exercise yards. He said a positive person was on one of those exercise outings. Bus trips to the off-site exercise range had now stopped.

One of the infected returnees traveled by bus to an exercise field with others from different facilities.

Those still there face a 24-hour hiatus from using the bus to get to the exercise areas.

Auckland’s Grand Millennium Hotel is also under investigation, and Bloomfield said a cleaner who contracted Covid-19 inside MIQ facilities earlier this week was still under investigation.

The household contact who initially tested weak positive has now produced a second negative Covid-19 test.

All close contacts of the cleaner have also tested negative.

The managed isolation time of fourteen people has been extended for another 14 days.