Four new imported cases of COVID-19 have been detected in New Zealand's managed isolation and quarantine facilities (MIQ), the Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday.
No new cases of community transmission have been recorded.
The first arrived from Qatar via Australia on November 5 and tested positive due to routine testing at around day 12 of their mandatory 14-day stay in managed isolation.
Two other returnees arrived from the UK via Qatar and Australia on November 12 and tested positive at around day three of their stay.
The fourth returnee arrived from France via Qatar and Australia on November 12 and also tested positive at around day three.
The latest imported infections bring New Zealand's confirmed case total to 1649. One previously reported case has now recovered, which means there are currently 61 active cases of the virus.
On Monday, our laboratories completed 6146 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 1,191,034.
November quarantine cluster update
It has now been 14 days since the Ministry of Health reported that Case A - a New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) worker who had been stationed at the Auckland quarantine facility - had tested positive for COVID-19.
"While it is encouraging that we have only identified another four cases of COVID-19 that are all connected to Case A, it has not yet been 14 days since the last identified cases - Case D and Case E - were out in the community," the ministry said in Tuesday's statement.
Case D is the Auckland woman embroiled in New Zealand's latest COVID scare. The woman, an AUT student who works at the clothing store A-Z Collections, was revealed as a new community case on Thursday in an impromptu press conference.
Case E, a close contact of Case D who resides in the same Auckland CBD apartment building, tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday after becoming infected by Case D.
Genome sequencing completed last week found that Case D shared an identical genomic link to Case A - indicating it's highly likely that the woman contracted the disease from the NZDF staffer, who had been working at the Jet Park when he became infected.
However, how exactly Case D contracted COVID-19 from Case A has not yet been identified.
"Despite extensive investigation, we have not yet been able to identify the exposure event that links these two people epidemiologically," the ministry said.
"Auckland Regional Public Health Service continues to pursue every possible angle on this source investigation."
Anyone who visited one of the locations of interest during the relevant time period - including the Mezze Bar and A-Z Collections - are asked to get a test, regardless of whether they have symptoms.
This wide surveillance testing in an area known to be visited by Cases A and D while they were infectious will help the ministry ensure there is no further community transmission.
All surveillance testing around these two cases has, to date, returned negative results.
The pop-up testing clinic on Auckland's Freyberg Place remains open until at least Friday, and anyone who has visited a location of interest within the relevant time period and has not yet been tested should do so as soon as possible.
There are also six other community testing centres in Auckland, along with availability at urgent care and primary care clinics across the city.
A full list of testing sites in Auckland can be found on the Auckland Regional Public Health Service website. The Ministry of Health website has details of where to get tested around the country.
Anyone with cold or flu symptoms anywhere in New Zealand should get a test and stay home until they receive a negative result.
Routine follow-up of contacts of each of the five cases continues, the ministry said.
NZ COVID Tracer app
NZ COVID Tracer now has 2,364,900 registered users, while 116,664,548 scans of QR code posters have been recorded. App users have created 4,839,697 manual diary entries to date.
Significant progress has been made regarding efforts to allow third-party integration with the COVID Tracer app and the National Contact Tracing Solution, the Ministry of Health confirmed on Tuesday. It's believed that third-party integration will improve contact tracing by increasing the range and volume of information available.
Users of the Rippl app, developed by digital agency Paperkite, are already able to receive NZ COVID Tracer contact alerts and, in due course, will be able to share their digital diaries with the ministry when required for contact tracing.
Paperkite is now trialling an automatic check-in feature using Bluetooth beacons. This allows Rippl users who have Bluetooth enabled to check-in to select locations without needing to scan the QR codes.
The beacons are already being trialled at several locations and will be in use at this weekend's Beervana festival in Wellington, the ministry said. The results will inform whether or not Paperkite decides on any further rollout of the beacons.
