Covid 19 coronavirus: Mt Roskill mini-cluster grows, four new cases today

“The repeated, deliberate and malicious spread of misinformation” threatened to block a move to alert level 1, says Health Minister Chris Hipkins.

Hipkins’ comments follow health officials who revealed four new Covid-19 cases today, two of which are in the community.

The other two are border cases in managed isolation.

The two new community cases are linked to the Mt Roskill subgroup, which began when an infectious member of the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship Church visited the home of a grieving family.

The person did not know they had Covid-19 at the time of the visit.

But the person had contact with a close contact who should have been in isolation, the ministry said.

Hipkins said officials were moving as quickly as possible to contain the subgroup.

Other countries look “with envy at New Zealand” with our “many freedoms”, and more freedoms will come when the subgroup is contained.

“We all have a role to play.”

It said that “repeated, deliberate and malicious dissemination of misinformation” threatened to block a crossing to level 1.

“We can all help to stifle misinformation by sharing the right information.”

He said Pasifika and Maori public health officials were supporting the Mt Roskill mini-cluster.

“We are seeing good cooperation overall.”

He said there were 101 close contacts associated with the subgroup, and there were constant checks for symptoms and a “high degree” of compliance.

Hipkins said there will be more cases in the subgroup, but it appears to be contained so far because all the recent positive cases were close contacts who were already isolating themselves.

He said all recent cases were connected to the subgroup, but moving to alert level 1 after Sept. 16 was a decision for next week.

Some of the people in the subgroup were in the community before being identified as close contacts, but Hipkins did not know the numbers.

He said that people should embrace science, and events worldwide showed how serious Covid-19 was.

Penalty for illegal meetings?

When asked about penalties for those who had violated lockdown rules, Hipkins said it was more important to support people’s cooperation rather than take a punitive approach.

“Come in if you have concerns, get tested if you are concerned. There will be no punitive approach here.”

It has not analyzed whether there are criminal penalties for people who spread misinformation, but it could be analyzed if it becomes a bigger problem.

“We can’t give the wrong information anywhere to go, just as we don’t give the virus anywhere to go. That’s the best protection.”

He said it was important to identify close contacts, and the St Dominic student was a close contact contact that had not previously been disclosed.

Whether that was deliberate is still unknown, he said.

When asked about the blockades in the suburbs, which National health spokesman Shane Reti has raised, Hipkins said they did not work in Melbourne and they would not have worked on this outbreak.

“We could be in a similar situation to Melbourne now.”

He said the closure of a suburb due to this outbreak would have caused the virus to explode in a similar way as it did in Melbourne.

He said the subgroup’s compliance was being monitored more strictly than normal, with home visits to verify compliance by health officials.

“We are getting a very, very good compliance rate.”

He said using the powers under the Health Act to force people to self-quarantine was always an option, but that sharing good information was much preferable to encouraging people to cooperate.

He said ministerial colleagues, including Peeni Henare and Jenny Salesa, were involved in communicating with church leaders, and the reluctance of church members to be reevaluated indicated it was having a positive impact.

Mt Roskill Church Members or Trials

The Health Ministry said church leaders in the fellowship were encouraging members to retest on Friday and adhere to health tips, such as self-isolation.

Nearly two-thirds of the 332 people in the congregation had been re-tested today at 8 am.

There is an additional testing station at Mt Roskill War Memorial, which is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“This subgroup has emerged as a result of a contact from a case that has close contact with other people,” the ministry said.

“From what we can tell, they didn’t know they had been infected and they were incubating and spreading the virus at the time.

“This underscores the importance of maintaining close contacts by following the public health advice given to them, which includes strict self-isolation even if they have no symptoms, and even if they have tested negative.”

There are also pop-up test stations that can be moved to new locations to meet community needs.

The new imported cases are a man in his 30s and a woman in his 50s.

Both cases arrived in New Zealand on a flight from India on August 27.

They were in controlled isolation in Christchurch and tested positive on the 12th. Both cases are now in quarantine.

The case at Auckland high school

The ministry said deep cleaning was completed at St. Dominic’s Catholic School, where a student who is part of the subgroup tested positive.

Many members of the school community have been screened since being informed of the case Tuesday afternoon.

Assessors have been provided with a surveillance code to assess asymptomatic members of the school community so they can keep track of the numbers.

As of 11 a.m. today, the laboratories had registered 561 tests with this code.

Staff and students have had access to two dedicated testing centers so they don’t have to wait long.

The vast majority of St Dominic’s students are casual contacts and are tested as a precaution. If these students and staff are well and have no symptoms, they do not need to isolate themselves while waiting for test results.

Auckland cluster

There are now 72 people linked to Auckland’s larger group at the Jet Park Hotel in quarantine, which includes 56 people who tested positive and their household contacts.

There are now 3,372 close contacts identified with the current outbreak, of which 3,354 have been contacted.

There are three people in the hospital, including two in the ICU at North Shore and Waikato Hospitals.

With today’s four new cases and nine additional recovered cases, our total number of active cases is 120. Of these, 39 are imported cases at MIQ facilities and 81 are community cases.

There are now 72 people linked to Auckland’s larger group at the Jet Park Hotel in quarantine, which includes 56 people who tested positive and their household contacts.

There are now 3,372 close contacts identified with the current outbreak, of which 3,354 have been contacted.

There are three people in the hospital, including two in the ICU at North Shore and Waikato Hospitals.

With today’s four new cases and nine additional recovered cases, our total number of active cases is 120. Of these, 39 are imported cases at MIQ facilities and 81 are community cases.

Yesterday’s cases

Yesterday there were six new cases, all related to the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship Church.

All were cases that are part of a subset of the church group, which began when a church member infected with Covid went to the home of a grieving family on August 27, when Auckland was at alert level 3 .

It is not clear if the visit was against the rules of level 3.

Police had already warned church members about an illegal prayer meeting, which was against level 3 rules, on August 15.

READ MORE:
• Covid 19 coronavirus: Mt Roskill church group could pull out Covid’s long tail for weeks
• Coronavirus Covid 19: Six new community cases, all linked to the ‘mini cluster’ of Mount Roskill
• Covid 19 coronavirus: Police warn Mt Roskill evangelical church leaders that they could face prosecution for further rule violations
• Covid 19 coronavirus: new community case in West Auckland, affected Maori health policy unit

Yesterday, Chief Health Officer Ashley Bloomfield asked church members to get retested for Covid-19, along with the people who partner with them.

He admitted that new cases in the subgroup could advance the long tail of the outbreak by weeks, but that would depend on how quickly close contacts could be traced and isolated.

This morning, the ministry posted a number of sights, including the Crave Cafe in Morningside, which was visited by a Covid-positive person between 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. on September 4.

Other area attractions include Kreem Bake Cook, a coffee shop in Henderson, and Bricklane Restaurant and Bar in New Lynn.

The ministry said that anyone visiting these locations during the relevant time periods was a casual contact with low risk of exposure.

They are not required to isolate themselves unless they start to feel unwell or develop symptoms of Covid-19.

If they get sick, they are advised to call Healthline and stay home.

But close contacts have been told to isolate themselves for 14 days, even if they test negative.