Covid 19 coronavirus: two new cases today, both in managed isolation

At present, there are two new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, both in managed isolation.

One person arrived on a flight from Germany on September 21 via the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia.

The other person who tested positive arrived in New Zealand on a flight from the Philippines via Taiwan on September 23. Both individuals tested positive as a result of tests conducted around the third day and have now both been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility.

There are no new cases in the community.

Meanwhile, all but one of the passengers on the charter flight from Christchurch to Auckland have been tested.

Of those tested, all results are negative, including a pending test result from yesterday that came back negative today.

The remaining passenger is a small child. A risk assessment, including negative testing from the child’s parents, has determined that the child is considered low risk and no testing is currently required.

Yesterday there were two new cases of Covid-19: one in managed isolation and the other historical, detected during contact tracing.

None of the new cases are in the community.

The imported case is a man in his 30s who came to New Zealand from Russia via the United Arab Emirates and tested positive on his third day in isolation.

The historical case was a passenger on a charter plane from Christchurch to Auckland. Three other people on that flight have already tested positive.

The person had returned negative tests on day 3 and 12 of his administered isolation, the ministry said.

“From additional tests and serological analysis, we have determined that there is no link to the group of returnees from Christchurch,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.

“Any infection would have occurred abroad before the person returned to New Zealand earlier this month and is no longer infectious.”

“As we’ve said about historical cases previously, we know that some people can return a positive PCR test long after they have recovered from the disease and are no longer infectious.”

All 86 passengers on the flight have already been screened, except for one, a small child. All have been negative except the three previously reported cases and the case confirmed today.

That testing regimen began after a man in his 40s flew home to Auckland on a chartered flight. He had returned to New Zealand from India on September 11 and spent 14 days in controlled isolation in Christchurch.