Thread by @covid19nz

COVID-19 update

There are no new cases of COVID-19 to report in the community in New Zealand today. There is one new case to report in a recent returnee in our managed isolation facilities, since the Ministry’s last update yesterday.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases detected at the border is two.

Two previously reported cases have now recovered. The total number of active cases in New Zealand today is 22.

Our total number of confirmed cases is 2,287.

Globally, there have been 158,651,638 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 3,299,764 deaths, reported to WHO.

Since 1 January 2021, there have been 59 historical cases, out of a total of 471 cases.

A previously reported historical case has now been reclassified as ‘not a case” and has now been removed from our tally.

NEW BORDER CASE DETAILS

One new case arrived on 7 May, tested positive around Day 3 and is in quarantine in Auckland.

MELBOURNE

The Ministry of Health’s current assessment is that the public health risk to New Zealand from the Melbourne community case announced yesterday is low.

At this stage the Ministry is recommending that Quarantine-free Travel, between New Zealand the state of Victoria can continue with certain additional precautions in place.

From what we know so far — based on information from Victoria health authorities — the case is linked to the Australian border, and there is a limited period where the person was considered infectious while in the community in Melbourne

with a modest number of locations of interest (12 listed on Victoria’s Department of Health website at 10am this morning).  

Anyone who was at one of these locations of interest at the specified time cannot travel to New Zealand for 14 days from exposure.

Anyone already in New Zealand who has been at a location of interest during the time specified, must self-isolate, call Healthline and arrange a test if  advised to do so.   There is a Section 70 notice in place that requires this.

Our contact tracing team will be contacting by email roughly 4,500 passengers by who recently travelled from Victoria to New Zealand to remind them of the above measures.

This afternoon, our public health team at the Ministry will again be in contact with their Australia counterparts to get an update on the Melbourne situation, and from there we will determine if we need to make any changes to our risk assessment for New Zealand

and whether we need to change our recommendations for Government. 

We expect to put out another update later today.

INTERNATIONAL NURSES DAY

We would like to reiterate our gratitude to all frontline health workers in Aotearoa, especially our nursing workforce, as today is International Nurses Day.

The nursing workforce is bigger than it has ever been with more than 61,000 nurses currently holding annual practising certificates.

We acknowledge and appreciate the hard work and commitment of nurses in all settings, including our hospitals, primary care, in community settings and in aged residential care.

We would like to acknowledge the importance and hard work of all our health professionals in New Zealand, and nurses in particular as it’s International Nurses Day today.

Nurses are often the first port of call for patients and their whanau around Aotearoa, in many different settings – hospitals, primary care, in community settings and in aged residential care.

Our nursing workforce is a big one – more than 61,000 nurses hold annual practicing certificates and that number is expected to grow by at least 2,000 within the next year.

TESTING INFORMATION

The total number of tests processed by laboratories to date is 2,064,910. On Tuesday, 5,182 tests were processed. The seven-day rolling average up to yesterday is 3,909 tests processed.  For all testing locations nationwide visit the Healthpoint website.

healthpoint.co.nz/covid-19/

NZ COVID TRACER APP

NZ COVID Tracer now has 2,817,871 registered users. Poster scans have reached 266,625,183 and users have created 9,987,293 manual diary entries. There have been 609,046 scans in the last 24 hours to midday yesterday.