There are four new cases of COVID-19 in the Auckland community – with yesterday’s ‘Case A’ now confirmed as the deadly Delta variant.
The Ministry of Health confirmed that one of the four new cases was a workmate of yesterday’s Case A.
“The other three are contacts of this workmate. One of the three contacts is a fully vaccinated health professional who works at Auckland City Hospital and had been working in recent days,” the Ministry said.
It said Auckland City Hospital had taken some immediate actions to shut down any potential spread.
“Those actions include stopping unnecessary movements between wards, testing all staff and patients on the ward the health professional worked on and standing down, testing and isolating staff on the same ward.”
“The Ministry received the results last night of the genome sequencing for case A. It is the Delta variant. We are undertaking further analysis to see how it could be connected to cases we know about.
“These developments strongly reinforce the importance of the actions taken last night in the move to level 4 and underpin the importance of everyone keeping to the lockdown conditions.”
The Ministry said the key message from the last lockdown remained relevant: ‘Stay at home, save lives, be tested. This will stop any undetected spread in the community’.
The Ministry will be providing its assessment later today about the extent of likely spread in the community and the length of time the virus may have been circulating in the community.
“Only leave your home if you need to, and please wear a mask when you do. We know of instances where people have picked up Delta simply by walking past someone with it.”
“Please get tested if you visited a location of interest or have cold and flu symptoms. Eight testing sites are being stood up in Auckland (details below) and we will be able to share details of testing sites in the Coromandel later this morning and elsewhere in the country.
“Please call Healthline on 0800 358 5453. And go to the Healthpoint website to find your local testing station, they will be updated during the day.
“We know that on the first day of testing it can take time for systems to be stood up and queues can be long. Please prepare to be in a queue for some time –wear a mask, take food and water with you, take a book to read or something to watch and please be patient and kind. Everyone is doing their best at testing stations, but the first day always tends to be busy.”Â