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Government asks people who work in downtown Auckland to work from home on Friday, if possible, and wear masks on public transport

Government asks people who work in downtown Auckland to work from home on Friday, if possible, and wear masks on public transport

The Government is asking Aucklanders who work in the CBD to work from home on Friday, "if possible", and wear a mask on public transport.

This follows the discovery of an unlinked case of Covid-10 in the community.

The Ministry of Health is also asking members of the public who live in the same apartment building as the patient, as well as people who have visited some of the same locations as her, to get tested and self-isolate. See the press release below for details.

The Government is considering alert level settings too. 

Here’s the latest from the Ministry of Health:

Auckland Regional Public Health Service has this afternoon conducted a detailed interview with the case announced today at 1pm in the community in Auckland.

We now know that this person’s role at A-Z Collection is in a customer facing role, as a shop assistant.

This person became symptomatic on 9 November, was tested on 10 November, was asked to isolate, then went to work on 11 November.

We now know that this case called in sick to work after receiving the advice to isolate, but after a conversation with their manager went to work and wore a mask.

A-Z Collection is closed today and is undergoing a deep clean.

Whole genome sequencing will also allow us to compare the genome of this case to that of other recent cases we have sequenced to help us determine the source of this latest infection.

The swab from this case has been received by ESR and will be processed overnight for whole genome sequencing. We have successfully sequenced 1,084 genomes to date, which includes 169 from MIQ facilities.

We are aware of media reports around a fire alarm at the managed isolation facility at the Grand Millennium that saw returnees on the street near today’s case’s accommodation.

The fire alarm was 8pm on Monday 9 November. This is not likely to be a source of infection for this case because she was already symptomatic earlier that day.
In terms of contacts of today’s case, we have identified 3 close contacts, and they are all being followed up, isolated, and tested.

Close contacts include a colleague of the case, and two friends. They all report being well. The two friends are being transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility as a precaution. One of the friends lives alone in the Vincent Residences, the same as the case.

All residents of the Vincent Residences have been asked to go home and stay home while testing takes place. Health authorities are working closely with the body corporate, and a cleaning company is going in today to do a deep clean of the common areas of the apartment building – including stairwells, lifts, and the lobby.

All common areas in the apartment building will be closed. A mobile testing station will be on site tonight for residents of Vincent Residences.

Today’s case also took a number of Ubers to work. The drivers are being contacted by ARPHS. The Uber trips were very short but because they were are in close confinement, we are asking them to get a test and isolate.

Following interviews with today’s case, we are in the process of confirming a number of locations of interest that the person visited while possibly infectious.

These include:

Anyone who was dining at the Red Pig Restaurant on Saturday night will need to be tested and to go into self-isolation until they receive a negative test result.

Anyone at Smith and Caughey’s, Starbucks, Sunnytown and The Gateau House at these times should watch for symptoms and get tested if they feel unwell, staying in self-isolation until they receive a negative test.

This afternoon around 2pm we have issued push notifications through NZ COVID Tracer for A-Z Collection and the Vincent Residences.

NZ COVID Tracer app users who scanned into either location during the relevant timeframes will receive a contact alert advising them to isolate and call Healthline to arrange a test.

It is too early to report the number of app users who will have received contact alerts, as the console we use for app analytics is not configured for real-time reporting.

Anyone who was at these places around these times should isolate, get tested, and stay isolated until they receive a negative result.

Pop-up testing is available today in Auckland, including at the Ellen Melville Centre on Freyberg Place, and a testing site at Victoria Park Community Testing Centre. There is also pop-up testing available tomorrow at Quay Park Health Centre at 68 Beach Road, and at the Wynyard Quarter Carpark Community Testing Centre on Madden Street.

A full list of testing sites in Auckland is available on the Auckland Regional Public Health Service website.

Anyone in the Auckland area, indeed throughout New Zealand, who has cold or flu symptoms should get a test and stay at home until you have a negative test result.

Out of an abundance of caution, we are asking people who work in downtown Auckland to work from home tomorrow where possible. If you must go into this area, please use masks and social distancing while health authorities continue work to trace the source of this infection.

We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.

Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.

39 Comments

Ok - next lockdown coming.

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Definitely gonna happen if more unconnected cases turn up - wonder where Case 0 came from?

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Much depends on the next 12 hours or so. If they can link to miq, maybe no level increase, though I think that's unlikely. If no more cases, l2. If lots of other cases, could be l3.

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Next housing boom to follow......

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Who cares about covid-19, we've got a far more serious issue on our hands - a Property Pandemic that is destroying a lot of families and individuals. The good news is, we have a vaccine ready, but the slackers at the RBNZ are slow to issue it..hopeless bunch of bozos.

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The vaccine requires a 20% deposit

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What difference a couple of weeks makes. It was only around election time where NZ had a positive outlook, and people even put themselves upon a pedestal in determining what countries were worthy of opening borders with NZ.

This week, most of you realized the NZ economy is effectively broken, and those countries will be watching this NZ covid situation with great interest.

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The NZ economy is far from broken. As for other countries, they have ample issues on their doorsteps to keep them occupied

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MoH IT, hang your head in shame.

It is too early to report the number of app users who will have received contact alerts, as the console we use for app analytics is not configured for real-time reporting.

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Yeah pretty average response. Not like they've had 8 months to get their sh1t together. Unbelievable

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The manager of the shop should also hang their head in shame. Poor.

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If I was the owner I'd kick that managers @rse till their nose bled then fire them on the spot.

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Ha ha, old school

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They should have a full audit done by inland revenue, including of employee records and payslips. Wouldnt be surprised if they are exploiting their workers.

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Manager is the owner

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Starbucks + Sunnytown + Gateau House = Bad immune system

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OMG this is insane! People hyperventilating on national TV over a single case. You guys realise that in Germany there are thousands of cases every day - nobody cares! THE GLOBAL IFR FROM THE WHO FOR UNDER 70s IS 0.05%!! https://swprs.org/studies-on-covid-19-lethality/

But that serology study was based on antibodies which fade away quickly, (ie doesnt include T-cell immunity) so the true IFR will be even lower that 0.05%. This virus is well an truly in line with seasonal flu. Stop destroying the economy for nothing. Lets get rid of these quarantine hotels and get the country back to normal.

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Agreed. The public have been victims of fear mongering and hysteria on an unimaginable scale.
Thankfully mummy Jacinda is there to protect them and make it all better.

It's really not that bad.

Losing your incomes due to political edict and having house prices jacked up by 20% in a year by economic clowns and an inept and clueless prime minister is a fate far worse.

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Geez, you really are bitter aren't you. Not to mention a bit misogynist there. Blame the investors, and the wealthy elite for house prices.

Economic clowns? Don't think so. How did Collins and Goldsmith get on then?

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Not to mention that 0.05% IFR is total fantasy which doesn't pass the first check with reality. US approaching ~300,000 deaths. Population ~300m so 0.1% dead and no sign of the wave of infections stopping.

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USA is addressed in the literature review. Re: 300K deaths; you have to distinguish between dying "with" covid and dying "of" covid which isn't trivial.

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You don't have to make that distinction if you use excess mortality, which also says 300k.

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The American CDC (Centers for Disease Control) two days ago released best estimates of IFR. According to the CDC 20-49 year olds IFR=0.02%, 50-69 year olds IFR=0.5%, and 70+ year olds IFR=5.4%. But again those are upper estimates because the serology doesn't recognise T-cell immune people as having had the disease.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html

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True IFR, under 70s, no worse than seasonal flu....I guess all those EDs in the UK & US are just pretending to be almost overwhelmed and folks aren’t actually dying?

Lord knows what the long term health impacts will be on the under 70s who caught this and “got over it”. Some clearly never do and will suffer lung damage, heart damage and debilitating fatigue for the rest of their lives.

Again if you don’t like it here, feel free to move to Brazil or North Dakota. I hear those places have lots of like-minded people for whom Covid is imaginary and QAnon is the one true gospel.

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I guess all those EDs in the UK & US are just pretending to be almost overwhelmed Strangely enough yes, that is apparently so.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nhs-nurse-publicly-resigns-blasts-c…

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Zerohedge? You'll have to do better than that.

There is almost zero desire within nz to be like Europe right now. If you lived here you might know that.

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Yes it's a propaganda case study.

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Yes time to apply lockdown to greedy property investors so I can buy my first family home please :)

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Disappointed to say the least. I can only imagine the MoH workers are running around like a cat on a hot tin roof trying to find out whats going on. Surely it must come from either the border or MIQ premises and the associated personnel.
The incident in the last week of the flight infected person and a close, not close, close contact in the same row is surely an indictment on MoH. They had at least three months to sort this out and get it across to the front line staff about who is a close or casual contact

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As the apartment in question is directly next-door to a managed isolation hotel, it's very likely to have come from there. The question is how did it occur, and how long ago? Hopefully, once they get the genome sequence, they can tie it to a specific case and figure out how long it has been out and about in the community.

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Chinese nationals... thanks again, you give so much

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Covid, PSA (destroyed our kiwifruit industry 10 years ago but no one remembers), high house prices - yep they're a real asset.

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Yesterday they were talking about an air bridge to some of the islands. Today there is a community outbreak of unknown origin. Is it my imagination or is this a scenario we have seen before?

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Yup. Glad someone else has noticed this too. First it was the islands, then Australia, now the Cooks - each time talk of a bubble is immediately followed by an outbreak. Call my cynical, but there's a pattern to this.

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If covid killed 30% of our population we would not have a housing crisis. Just saying.

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I can think of no better civil disobedience for the housing crisis than ignoring their covid commands.

Sadly with a 99.97% survival rate it's not going to kill enough.

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If it is not uncontrolled community spread this time it is just delaying the inevitable. Hopefully we get to enjoy at least a little summer before the next lockdown.

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Palor games
https://www.instagram.com/p/CHe-cSzgGhP/?igshid=11dwlm3hrs4qz

Stay safe everyone.....
- while public health flailing about.

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250 defence force personnel working at MIQ's in Auckland have all been staying at the Waldorf Apartment hotel in the city. Does that include the person Case A from Jet Park? Have all of the other 250 personnel been tested?
The apartment hotel is still in lockdown now? How much contact with each other and the citizenry, in general, did that 250 personnel have prior to case A testing positive?

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