Dr Ashley Bloomfield isn't concerned about a man who tested positive for COVID-19 after being released from managed isolation when he returned a negative test and was considered recovered.
The man originally returned a positive test but recovered during his stay and tested negative before being discharged. He was assessed again at the hospital upon his release and returned a subsequent positive COVID-19 test during that assessment, the Director-General of Health told a news briefing on Thursday.
But Dr Bloomfield explained why that positive test may have happened.
"He was returned to the quarantine facility in Auckland to be re-assessed by the clinician, who assessed that the positive test was a result of residual virus - and that his residual symptoms were due to an underlying condition," Dr Bloomfield said.
"There are very strict criteria applied before someone is determined as recovered once they have been identified as a case and they are the same criteria we have applied right from the start - I asked our team to have a look at those criteria, and I got a report back yesterday [Wednesday] to check that we were still aligned with Australia, the WHO [World Health Organization] and other countries."
One change that will be made is that cases will now have to be asymptomatic for 72 hours to be considered "recovered" as opposed to 48, Dr Bloomfield said.
Meanwhile, it's been 76 days since the last case of COVID-19 was acquired locally by an unknown source. Dr Bloomfield announced one new case of coronavirus on Thursday - a child in managed isolation in Christchurch.
Fewer than 3000 tests were processed on Wednesday. No-one is receiving treatment in hospital.
