There were no new cases of Covid-19 recorded in the community in New Zealand today.
There have also been four new Covid-19 cases reported at the border since yesterday.
The Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today’s numbers in a press conference.
Today, Hipkins announced all close contacts of the Northland woman with Covid-19 have tested negative for the virus.
The woman completed a 14-day stay in managed isolation at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland on January 13, after travelling back to New Zealand from Europe. On Sunday health officials confirmed she'd tested positive for the virus.
Today Bloomfield said upon further consideration by health officials, it was deemed only 11 people were "genuine" close contacts of the Northland woman, as opposed to the 16 reported yesterday. All 16 were tested and returned a negative test result.
The 11 genuine close contacts remain in isolation.
The woman herself is now considered recovered, having not displayed symptoms for the past 72 hours and after more than 10 days had past since she first showed signs of the virus. She remains in self-isolation at home, Bloomfield said.
Testing also continues for the 353 guests that had left the Pullman Hotel between January 9 and 24 after completing their managed isolation stay. Contact tracers have made contact will all guests, and 255 people so far have returned a negative test.
The remaining tests are pending. Ninety-eight of the guests had recently departed the country, and they are being contacted to make sure they are tested, Bloomfield said.
He said two initial test results from the 353 guests came back positive. But, a further serology test showed one was a historic Covid-19 case. The other test was a false positive.
Fourteen guests reported experiencing symptoms when contacted. Thirteen tests from the group have come back negative. The remaining one is pending.
Tests for 212 staff at the Pullman Hotel is underway, Bloomfield said. All results have so far been negative.
In the community, 321 people have been identified as being at one of the 31 locations around the time the Northland woman visited. 127 of the tests from that group has returned a negative result. The rest are pending.
More than 10,000 tests were carried out yesterday, 8000 of those in the Northland and Auckland regions.
As of today, more than 1.5 million Covid-19 tests have been carried out since the start of the pandemic.
The Covid Tracer app has reached more than 1 million poster scans in the 24 hours to midday yesterday.
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