One new arrival has tested positive for COVID-19 in managed isolation over the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday.
No new cases of COVID-19 have been detected in the community.
The new imported case travelled from Indonesia via Singapore and arrived in New Zealand on May 7. They returned a positive result due to routine testing on day three of their stay in managed isolation.
As of Thursday, five previously reported cases have now recovered, bringing the total number of active infections in New Zealand to 18. To date, the country has recorded 2288 cases of the virus.
Since January 1, 2021, 472 cases have been detected, primarily in managed isolation facilities. Of these, 59 have been classified as historical cases, meaning the individuals were not infectious at the time of their positive test results.
A previously reported historical case has now been reclassified as 'not a case' and has been removed from New Zealand's tally, a spokesperson for the ministry said.
Two Kiwis identify themselves as casual contacts of Melbourne case
Two people in New Zealand have contacted Healthline and identified themselves as casual contacts of a new case in Melbourne.
The individuals have been provided with advice "and/or" testing arrangements, the ministry said.
The public health risk to New Zealand has been assessed by the Ministry of Health as "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," the ministry said.
"Anyone who was at one of the locations of interest in Melbourne, 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 in Melbourne during the time specified, must call Healthline for advice on isolating and testing.
"The ministry's public health team remains in contact with their counterparts in Australia about the situation in Melbourne."
The ministry's contact tracing team are in the process of contacting roughly 4500 passengers who recently travelled from Victoria to New Zealand to remind them of the above measures.
Speaking to reporters during an update on New Zealand's vaccine rollout on Thursday, the Director-General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, said the ministry has not been notified of any additional cases in Melbourne after the man tested positive for the virus on Tuesday.
The man, who is in his 30s, recently returned to Australia and completed quarantine in South Australia. On May 4, he returned to his home in Wollert, on the outskirts of Melbourne, but developed symptoms of the virus on May 8. He was tested on Monday and returned the positive result on Tuesday morning.
Dr Bloomfield confirmed that genome sequencing has linked the man's infection back to the managed isolation facility in South Australia.
"Whole genome sequencing has confirmed the link back to the managed isolation facility in South Australia that the index case was at," he said. "That's encouraging in the sense it was not from the community."
Dr Bloomfield also touched on the two New Zealanders who told Healthline they had visited locations of interest connected to the Melbourne case.
"They were in one of the places of interest at the time of interest. They are casual contacts and they have been provided with advice, as appropriate, around testing," he confirmed.
Additionally, the ministry has not been notified of any new developments in last week's Sydney outbreak, he said.
"No further cases have been identified there in the community."
