There are no new Covid-19 cases to report in the community according to the Ministry of Health and just one in managed isolation.
It comes as Cabinet met this morning to discuss Wellington's alert level settings.
The capital was sent into Alert Level 2 earlier this week after a traveller on a weekend trip to the city tested positive for Covid-19 upon his return to Sydney. He was later confirmed to have contracted the Delta variant of Covid-19.
Covid-19 Response Minister, Chris Hipkins and Director General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield fronted media today over the latest developments.
Results back from wastewater testing from Thursday and Friday show Covid has not been detected at any of the sites at Wellington, Hutt Valley or Porirua.
However, Hipkins says Level 2 in Wellington will be extended for another 48 hours until 11.59pm on Tuesday, saying “we are not out of the woods yet”.
As of yesterday, 2,444 potential contacts have been identified as a result of investigations by health officials.
Hipkins says it’s a “large number of contacts for one individual case”. He says no stone will be left unturned to ensure cases will be identified following the positive Covid case emerging from a visit to Wellington last weekend.
He says 2067 of those contacts have returned a negative result, the remainder have yet to be confirmed in the next 48 hours.
He said 6120 tests were processed yesterday In New Zealand but only 676 were done in Wellington. “A relatively low number” Hipkins says.
While the negative test results to date have been encouraging, Hipkins says there is an “indeterminate” case in Masterton which is still under investigation.
After a Cabinet meeting this morning, it was decided the Government wants to see more testing data. The partner of the person who visited Wellington last weekend has also tested positive for Covid-19.
“It suggests Case A was infectious towards the end of their stay in New Zealand,” Hipkins says.
Bloomfield says as today marks the eighth day since the person who visited Wellington tested postive and it's "critical" over the next few days that Wellington residents adhere to level 2 restrictions.
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