Coronavirus: 14 new cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand

There are 14 new cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand, five of which were detected in the community.

The remaining nine cases were imported and found in managed isolation and quarantine facilities (MIQ).

The five new community cases are all "clearly epidemiologically linked" to cases that are either epidemiologically or genomically linked to the Auckland cluster, the Ministry of Health said in a statement on Tuesday.

Two cases are household contacts of previously reported cases, and the other three are all in a household linked to an existing case.

Of the nine cases in MIQ facilities, five are in Christchurch, three are in Auckland and one is in Wellington. They are all in strict quarantine arrangements.

The Christchurch cases are a man in his 20s, a woman in her 30s, two women in their 20s, and a man in his 40s. All five patients arrived on the same flight from India via Fiji on August 27.

The Auckland cases are two woman in their 20s and 30s, both of whom arrived from India on August 23. The third is a woman in her 50s, who arrived on August 26 from Qatar.

The final Wellington case is a man in his 50s, who arrived on August 18 from the United States and tested positive due to routine testing at around day 12 of his stay.

Since August 11, the ministry's contact tracing team has identified 2743 close contacts of cases, of which 2676 have been contacted and are self-isolating. The balance are in the process of being contacted.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. Photo credit: Getty

As of Tuesday morning, health officials have identified 51 close contacts of the Tokoroa health professional who tested positive for COVID-19. Of those, 48 have already been contacted. They have either been tested and returned a negative result, or are self-isolating and awaiting a test. The team is continuing to follow up with the remaining three close contacts.

There are 123 people linked to the community cluster who have been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility, the Jet Park Hotel, including 79 who have tested positive for COVID-19 and their household contacts.

Ten people are currently hospitalised with COVID-19. Two are in Auckland City Hospital, three are in Middlemore Hospital, three are in North Shore Hospital and two are in Waikato Hospital. Eight people are on a ward and two are in ICU - one each in Middlemore and Waikato.

As of Tuesday, an additional 13 people are now considered to have recovered from the virus, all of which were community cases.

New Zealand's total number of active cases now stands at 132. Of those, 33 are imported cases in MIQ facilities and 99 were found in the community.

It brings the total number of confirmed cases to 1401, which is the number reported to the World Health Organization.

On Monday, laboratories processed 8599 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 766,626.

NZ COVID Tracer app

The NZ COVID Tracer app has reached a "significant milestone" on Tuesday, the ministry said, recording over two million registered users - equivalent to half the population aged 15 and over.

On average, there have been more than 1.7 million scans of app-linked QR codes per day over the last week.

"This uptake is fantastic. The more people who get into the habit of keeping track of their movements, the easier contact tracing will be," said the statement.

The ministry is continuing to receive several-thousand QR code requests each day as transport operators work to get their posters in place by September 3, the day their display becomes mandatory.