Covid 19 coronavirus: neighbor of a new community case returns a ‘weak positive’ test

A neighbor who lives in the same apartment building as the Auckland student with Covid-19 has tested “weak positive” for the coronavirus.

“This individual lived in a neighboring apartment on Vincent St Apartments for [the student]”Said the Ministry of Health today.

The person was already in a quarantine facility, the ministry said.

“The individual’s initial test result was negative, but a subsequent test today yielded a weak positive result. Additional testing is now underway. It is currently considered an investigational case.”

There are three other Covid-19 cases today in managed isolation.

A newcomer from Romania landed in New Zealand on November 3 via Qatar and Australia. They tested positive around day 12 in routine tests and are now in the Auckland quarantine facility.

The second case arrived from Australia on 1 November and was also detected in testing around the 12th. This person has now also moved to the Auckland quarantine facility.

The third case arrived from the UK on 12 November and tested positive upon arrival and was transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility.

A previously reported case has now recovered, meaning the total number of active cases remains at 56.

The total number of confirmed cases is now 1,643.

Yesterday, labs completed 6,320 tests for Covid-19, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 1,169,062.

Covid poster scans have reached 114,559,362 and there have been 4,767,798 manual entries in the journal.

“More than a million scans were performed yesterday, the most since October 1, which means that around one in five users of the app were scanning the codes,” the ministry said, which was “encouraging.” .

The test sites have been busy in Auckland today, after the CBD was pulled out of its quasi-lock yesterday after genomic testing showed the AUT student was infected by the military’s Defense Force quarantine group. .

The genomes of Case A, the military man who contracted the virus at the Jetpark quarantine facility, and Case D, the AUT student, were identical, which is consistent with direct transmission between the two.

That doesn’t preclude the possibility that someone else is on the chain, but officials are confident that the timeframe suggests there was not a long chain of transmission involving many people.

Yesterday there were no other positive Covid-19 cases in the community despite over 7,200 tests being processed, including more than 100 from the woman’s Vincent Residences apartment building.

How the AUT student got infected remains a missing piece of the puzzle.

She works just 82 meters from a café the defense worker visited, but extensive interviews have found no obvious connection.

Despite confidence that the group is well contained and widespread transmission highly unlikely, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins will move next week to make masks mandatory on airplanes and in public transport in Auckland.

The public health order is being drafted and will be presented to Cabinet on Monday with the support of the Prime Minister.

Confusion about applying for sick leave

The Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS) has been responsible for the contact tracing interviews with the woman, who is 20 years old and works at AZ Collections in High St.

On Thursday, Public Health Director Dr. Caroline McElnay co-chaired a news conference with Hipkins and said the woman called work sick after taking the test, but ended up working after talking to her manager, but used a mask.

However, AZ Collections owners husband and wife Bing Wang and Mei Chen have released a statement through their attorneys, Focus Law, claiming that the employee had never told them she was ill, that she had tried to call to report that was ill or had had a Covid test.

The Herald has not been able to speak directly to the student. Focus Law issued a statement from her, saying that on the night of Monday, November 9, she had a sore throat and contacted her GP the next day, and they recommended a Covid test.

On Wednesday, November 11, her sore throat was gone, the statement said, and she went to work wearing a mask “just to be safe.”

“I didn’t tell my boss or manager the above and didn’t ask for permission at any point. I didn’t think it was a big deal.”

According to the statement, the language barrier issues meant that ARPHS staff “made a lot of mistakes in recording my whereabouts, past actions and contacts.”

Yesterday, officials organized a translator to help the contact trackers.