Coronavirus Covid 19: Jacinda Ardern Will Reveal Alert Level Decision at 1pm; Quarantine worker at Jet Park Hotel tests positive

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The ministers will meet today to decide the fate of New Zealand’s alert level, following two new Covid-19 cases yesterday, including a quarantine worker at the Jet Park Hotel. The other confirmed case is a returnee abroad in managed isolation.

The Jet Park case is a healthcare worker and is the first positive test there in the five and a half months since the quarantine facility began operating.

Prevention controls, including the use of personal protective equipment, are now being reviewed.

It comes as health officials also alerted the public to three new places and dates a Covid-positive person visited before learning they had the virus.

The person visited Les Mills gym in Takapuna and Countdown supermarket and The Warehouse in Milford.

Auckland Regional Public Health cautions that anyone who has visited Les Mills Gym in Takapuna on September 9-10 and attended certain Body Combat and Sprint classes is now being treated as a close contact. They should stay home and contact Healthline (0800 358 5453) as soon as possible.

Classes included Wednesday, September 9: Sprint RPM class at 5.30pm and Body Combat class at 6.15pm; and Thursday, September 10: 9.15 am Body Combat class.

Others in the gym at the same time, but not in those classes, are casual contacts and are asked to take the test.

An ARPHS spokesperson said the person also visited The Warehouse and Countdown in Milford on Thursday, September 10. ARPHS said the risk to anyone who was in these other locations at the same time as the case is very low.

“The person was only in these stores for 15 minutes and had no close contact with anyone else during the visits. While the person was contagious at the time, the risk to staff and other shoppers is considered low.”

Currently Auckland, the center of the current outbreak, is at alert level “2.5”, with a stricter social gathering limit of 10 people except for funerals and tangi, which allow 50 people.

The rest of the country is at alert level 2, where social gatherings of up to 100 people are allowed.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will announce the cabinet decision at 1 pm from Dunedin, where the Labor leader is campaigning today. It will be broadcast live on nzherald.co.nz and Newstalk ZB.

Any changes to the alert levels will not take effect until after 11:59 p.m. M. From Wednesday.

“We have always been ready to move to Level 1,” Queenstown Mayor Jim Boult told Mike Hosking of Newstalk ZB today.

He reiterated a call for the rules of social distancing on airplanes to be relaxed: Air New Zealand jets currently fly nationally with the middle seat empty.

READ MORE:
• Covid 19 coronavirus: Two new cases today, including a health worker at the Jet Park quarantine facility
• Coronavirus Covid-19 – West Auckland school deemed safe to open after students test positive
• Coronavirus Covid 19: two new cases in New Zealand linked to the Mt Roskill group
• Mt Roskill Group: Two Waitematā DHB Health Workers Test Positive for Covid-19

Meanwhile, Marketview data released yesterday showed a 26 percent drop in hotel and lodging spending since Auckland exited Tier 3, but only a 3.5 percent drop in retail spending compared to the year. previous.

“There is no question that there has been some pent-up demand for retail as many stores were closed for almost three weeks,” said Takapuna Beach Business Association Executive Director Terence Harpur.

“However, level 2.5 is still particularly restrictive in restaurants, cafes and bars.”

Public health experts have called for caution in easing restrictions, and University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker said that silent transmission outside known groups was a “real possibility.”

University of Auckland professor Shaun Hendy, whose team has been modeling Covid-19 for the government, said uncertainty remained surrounding the cluster of cases linked to the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship Church.

Yesterday was the first day in recent times with no new cases linked to the group.

The Health Ministry said that 98 percent of the church congregation had been re-screened, as had 98 percent of the subgroup linked to a series of bereavement events.

7,211 tests were processed yesterday.

There were three people in the hospital, including two in the ICU, and the number of active cases was 97.

Of these, 39 were imported cases at MIQ facilities and 58 were community cases.

Chief of Managed Isolation and Air Quarantine Commodore Darryn Webb said the Jet Park worker did not work anywhere else.

The MIQ team is now reviewing personnel records, swipe card data, and CCTV footage to map the person’s movements in recent days.

Five household contacts connected with the health worker are isolated at home and are being evaluated.

The results of the genome sequencing are expected tomorrow.

“This case is still being investigated to determine whether the infection came from the community or within the quarantine facility, although at this stage no obvious links with other cases in the community have been established,” the Health Ministry said.

“Facility personnel who were considered close contacts have been removed and a thorough cleaning of personnel areas at the facility has been completed.”

All personnel at the quarantine facility are being re-examined, and it is expected to be completed by the end of today.

Yesterday, the director general of health, Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, and the executive director of the Ministry of Pacific Peoples, Laulu Mac Leauanae, addressed the issue of disinformation during a speech on Facebook Live.

Bloomfield said New Zealand would have seen 3,500 deaths, 20 percent of which would have been among healthcare workers, if New Zealand had followed the strategy used in the UK.

So far, New Zealand has 24 deaths from Covid-19.