The Director-General of Health has announced New Zealand has two new cases of COVID-19, both of which are imported.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield says the first of the new cases arrived on October 19 from the Netherlands via Dubai. The second arrived on October 21 from Doha. Both were tested on arrival as they developed symptoms on the flight. They are now in the Auckland quarantine facility.
New Zealand now has 58 active cases and has recorded 1558 confirmed cases overall.
On Wednesday, 7083 tests were processed, taking the country's total to 1,047,994.
The number of cases at the Christchurch Airport Sudima Hotel remains the same at 18. All guests in that hotel are being retested on Thursday.
Dr Bloomfield thanks the media in getting the message out to the public about the Greenhithe pub visited by an infected individual. Anyone who was in the pub on Friday night and their household contacts should isolate and be tested, he says. All should remain in isolation until they receive their results.
He said the pub incident shows the importance of people using the COVID Tracer app so they can be contacted as soon as possible.
Two new community testing stations have been stood up on Auckland's North Shore to assist with the testing. Dr Bloomfield thanks everyone who has been tested so far.
Dr Bloomfield says while this weekend is a long weekend, "this virus does not take breaks". He wants Kiwis to record their movements, including by using the QR code scanner. There has been a big drop in scans over the last month, since Auckland moved to alert level 1.
He says we can do a lot better.
"Please, get back into the habit," Dr Bloomfield says.
He is still strongly encouraging people to use a mask on public transport and flights.
Anyone who is sick should stay home and not go on holiday. Testing will be available throughout the country over the long weekend.
He has no particular advice around gatherings this weekend other than saying that anyone who is unwell should not attend.
Dr Bloomfield says the Ministry is not currently advising a move up alert levels. A move could come if there are additional cases not linked to the ones we already know about.
On Wednesday, Dr Bloomfield revealed Aoteroa had recorded 25 new cases of the virus which has spread around the world infecting millions.
Of the 25 new cases, two were community cases linked to the port worker confirmed as positive on Sunday. They are said to be workplace contacts.
One of these individuals spent time at a Greenhithe pub on Friday night while infectious. That has led to every other patron being asked on Wednesday to isolate and get tested.
On Thursday morning, the Auckland Regional Public Health Service wrote to parents and staff at Rangitoto college, on the city's North Shore, alerting them to a case in a school family.
A student from that family had attended the college only briefly since the family member became unwell. They are not considered a close contact and have returned a negative test result. Accordingly, the health service believes there is little risk to other students.
There were also 18 cases of the virus confirmed on Wednesday at a Christchurch managed isolation facility from the group of Russian and Ukrainian fishermen. The other cases reported were all usual imported cases.
Dr Bloomfield was clear on Wednesday that more cases were expected.
