Six new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in New Zealand over the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health has revealed - none of which are in the community.
The new cases all tested positive in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities on around day three of their mandatory 14-day stay, a press release sent to media on Thursday says.
No new community cases have been detected in the community since last Friday, six days ago.
Four of the new MIQ cases arrived in the country from India on October 24, and one landed here from the Netherlands via Singapore a day prior. The Ministry of Health is still seeking arrival information on the sixth case.
Meanwhile crew on cargo ship the Ken Rei, on which a marine engineer who later tested positive worked, have returned negative results for a second time after they were tested for COVID-19 on Wednesday.
This means the ship is now able to depart Napier and head to Tauranga.
The Ministry of Health also provided an update on a Kiwi child who returned a weak positive result after being tested in Japan last Friday. It says it is working with its Japanese counterpart but suspects it is a historical case or a false positive result.
Further details will be provided when they become available, the ministry says.
Two previously reported cases have recovered in the last day which, combined with the six new cases, take the number of active cases in New Zealand to 70.
The total number of confirmed and probable cases now stands at 1949.
Laboratories processed another 7403 tests for COVID-19, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 1,083,230.
CovidCard contact-tracing moves into final trial phase
A trial programme for the proposed contact-tracing CovidCard is moving into its final phase, the Ministry of Health says - despite original backer Sam Morgan pulling out of the project.
The cards, which use Bluetooth to exchange 'digital handshakes' with each other to keep an anonymised record of participants' close contacts, are currently being tested for efficacy.
"The trial will help us understand how well the contact tracing cards perform in a real-world scenario, whether they are compatible with our contact tracing systems, and if people will accept and use them," the Ministry of Health said.
"The results of the trial will help inform a decision by Government later this year on whether contact tracing cards should be rolled out more widely to support contact tracing alongside the NZ COVID Tracer app."
The ministry says it has worked closely in partnership with Te Arawa and the Universities of Waikato and Otago to co-design the 'on the ground' and analysis phases of the programme.
"Te Arawa knows the Ngongotahā community better than anyone and has the skills and experience needed to support a successful community trial," a press release reads.
"The programme aims to recruit between 500 and 1500 members of the Ngongotahā community, who will be asked to wear the cards as they go about their daily activities and attend community events.
Registrations for the trial will commence on October 30, and the trial process will finish on November 15.
