The total number of active cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand today (Monday, August 24) is 123; 19 are imported cases associated with people arriving from overseas, the remaining number are linked to the South Auckland cluster.

These active cases include nine new cases reported today, eight of which are confirmed and one is a probable case.

One confirmed case today is an imported case identified in routine testing in managed isolation facilities; the other eight cases are linked to the cluster where contacts with infected people occurred on public transport, church, workplaces and shared households.

These cases bring New Zealand’s total number of confirmed cases to 1,332, the number reported to the World Health Organisation.

There are 151 people linked to the South Auckland cluster who have been moved into the Auckland quarantine facility. This includes 82 people who have tested positive for COVID-19, and their household contacts.

Today there are now 10 people with COVID-19 in hospital. Three people are in Auckland City Hospital, four people in Middlemore, two people in North Shore Hospital and one person in Waikato Hospital. Two of the 10 people hospitalised are in the intensive care unit. 

Laboratories completed 4,589 tests yesterday, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 697,070. 

Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield praised the response of Aucklanders to the increased level of testing carried out in the region.

He also said the alert level three imposed on the Auckland region has been enormously beneficial in helping curb this recent outbreak of the pandemic. 

“The value of [the] alert level three situation in Auckland has been immense over the last couple of weeks to help us contain any further spread from this outbreak,” he said.

And genome sequencing, which wasn’t used during the original outbreak in New Zealand in March, has been critical to health officials’ understanding of the source of each case; knowing a new case is part of a cluster rather than a novel case potentially from a different source of infection has provided confidence, he said.

Ashley also said it was encouraging to see the expanding uptake of the COVID-19 Tracer App.

“It is great that New Zealanders are clearly aware of the importance of keeping a record of their movements. These recent cases have shown us that the ability to be able to quickly trace and isolate contacts of cases is key to stamping out this virus,” he said.

PHOTO: Supplied