Two new community cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in New Zealand today.
One case isn't linked to any current cases identified so far by the Ministry of Health, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said in a press conference today.
The new mystery case is an Auckland student who became symptomatic on November 9 and were tested the next day.
They went to work at the A-Z Collections store on High Street from November 8 till November 11.
The positive test result was confirmed this morning and the person has been taken to Auckland's quarantine facility.
The person lives alone and hasn’t had many outings recently, Bloomfield says.
The person is a student at AUT but hasn’t been on campus since mid-October.
Auckland Public Regional Health Service is currently interviewing the positive case and identifying close contacts.
They are also working to identify the person’s movements over the past week to find where they picked up the infection. Genome testing is also underway.
The second new community case is linked to the November cluster.
Bloomfield said this was a good reminder to get tested if someone feels unwell and to isolate while waiting for test results.
The other community case is connected to the November cluster and is a close contact of "Case B" in the cluster. This new case is being referred to by the Ministry of Health as "Case C".
Bloomfield says Case C had met with Case B for lunch in Wellington at the Little Penang restaurant on The Terrace on Friday afternoon.
On developing symptoms on Saturday, they had a Covid-19 test and isolated at home.
The test returned a negative result, however Case C was moved to quarantine at the Grand Mercure in Wellington.
A second test returned a positive result yesterday.
Push notifications were sent out on Sunday for Little Penang The Terrace, visited by Case B and Case C.
Anyone who visited the restaurant between 1pm and 4pm on Friday have been asked to take a test if they feel symptomatic.
Household contacts for Case C are in isolation and have returned negative test results.
All identified close contacts of the new case are isolating.
There is also one new additional case in managed isolation today.
They arrived on November 9 from Los Angeles. They returned a positive test around day three and have been moved to the Auckland quarantine facility.
Two cases have recovered bringing the total number of active cases in New Zealand to 53.
New Zealand's total number of confirmed cases is now 1,635.
Yesterday, 6,581 Covid-19 tests were completed by labs across the country, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 1,155,514.
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