Thirteen new confirmed cases reported today (Tuesday August 18) by the director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield bring the national total of COVID-19 cases to 1293.

Twelve of the 13 new cases are linked directly to the South Auckland cluster - the remaining one case is under investigation but is believed to also be linked to the cluster.

There are now six cases in hospitals in Auckland but none are in intensive care.

Today’s new cases means there are a total of 90 active cases; 69 associated with the cluster and 20 imported cases. 

The source of the cluster is still being investigated but Ashley says according to genome sequencing it appears that the Americold employee who reported symptoms on July 31 was the first person with the virus in this cluster.

Results of genome testing from two Auckland COVID-19 cases that were under investigation have returned this morning, confirming one case is connected to the South Auckland cluster. 

Partial genome sequencing results indicate the second case, a man who works as a maintenance worker at the Rydges Hotel managed isolation facility in Auckland, is not linked to the community cluster.

The man returned a positive result for COVID-19 on Sunday 16 August with symptom onset on 11 August. He was transferred to Jet Park Hotel quarantine facility on Monday 17 August. It has taken until this morning for genomic sequencing results to confirm the origin of the case.

Genome sequencing shows a returnee from the USA with the same sequence as the maintenance worker did stay at the Rydges Hotel from 28 July to 31 July before they returned a Day 3 positive test and were immediately moved to the Jet Park quarantine facility on 31 July.

The man, who does not have any routine contact with guests, carried out maintenance tasks on vacant rooms between bookings, following full infection prevention and controls, including wearing PPE.

At this stage there is no obvious person-to-person connection between the worker and the returnee from the USA but investigations continue. 

The room the USA returnee was in underwent hospital-grade cleaning with hydrogen peroxide vapour sanitation using a BioQuell machine. It has been unoccupied since the case was transferred to the Jet Park quarantine facility and is still empty. 

No other cases linked to this person have been identified to date.  

Six close contacts he worked with at the managed isolation facility have been identified and are in self-isolation. They have all returned negative results from surveillance testing last week. Another three household close contacts of the man are all in self-isolation and have been tested.

Further genome sequencing and matching is being completed today and fuller analysis is expected later.

“All new cases will undergo genome sequencing,” Ashley said.