Coronavirus Covid-19: Two New Community Cases – Chris Hipkins

There are two new cases of Covid-19 in the community, says Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins.

The new cases are both students. One is a close contact from the Papatoetoe High School community case that tested positive last week.

The other is the brother of the new case, says Hipkins.

Officials were investigating this, but it is still “preliminary information.”

In terms of what that means, Hipkins said these cases have a known link to known cases.

He said the government has been able to contain new cases in the past, when the source was known.

But he is not getting ahead of the Cabinet decision this afternoon at alert levels.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will hold a press conference at 4:30 pm and describe the cabinet call.

Meanwhile, officials are looking at “all the potential opportunities that could have been for the infection.”

The “big wave of testing” is designed to find out if there are more Covid-19 positive people in the community.

Meanwhile, he said the Pullman is back in operation but at 50 percent capacity.

Hipkins provides an overview in a select committee of what has been done so far to contain the latest community cases, as well as what the plan is for the next few weeks.

It is also likely that he will go into detail about the new measures that the Government has taken with the MIQ facilities.

Chief Health Officer Ashely Bloomfield is also on the committee.

These changes include: Air filtration systems are being replaced in all elevators at the facility, CCTV systems have been improved, and movement of people has been further limited.

After Hipkins’s opening remarks, he will answer questions from MPs.

National’s health spokesman Shane Reti is likely to be the first to question the minister.

Over the past few days, National has said that the government has done the right thing by putting Auckland at alert level 3 and the rest of the country at level 2.

But they have been divided into zones on the subject of saliva tests.

Reti says this method should be mandatory and must be done every day for people at MIQ.

But, speaking in the House yesterday, Hipkins said that this method was already being used in conjunction with nasal exchangers.

However, he said the saliva tests were not as accurate as the current method and would not be used by themselves as a test medium.