Knowing the location of COVID-19 cases gives us peace of mind that Delta is being contained, so it may be concerning to some that one of the official case locations is 'other'.
What exactly does 'other' mean? While 133 cases are listed as being in state-run quarantine, 12 in hospital, and 36 at home in self-isolation, 65 cases are mysteriously described as being located at 'other'.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson told Newshub in most cases 'other' means that the information is held locally and complete information has not yet been entered into the national database by the Public Health Unit (PHU) managing the case.
"We are working with the relevant PHUs to amend these entries as time permits," the spokesperson said.
'Other' can also be used if a person is isolating on a vessel. However, the spokesperson confirmed that there are no confirmed COVID-19 cases currently self-isolating on a vessel.
An additional 68 COVID-19 community cases were confirmed on Thursday, bringing the outbreak total to 277, with 263 in Auckland and 14 in Wellington.
The good news is that of the more than 60 new cases, the majority are linked, and of the more than 400 locations of interest, only 13 of them have generated cases, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
But not everyone who has been identified as a contact of a case has been tested. The Ministry of Health's data shows that, of the 24,402 individual contacts identified, around 71 percent have had a test, meaning there could still be undetected coronavirus in the community.,
All of the community cases have or are being transferred safely to a quarantine facility, under strict infection prevention and control procedures, including the use of full personal protective equipment, or PPE.
COVID-19 Response Minister COVID-19 Chris Hipkins confirmed plans on Wednesday for an additional quarantine facility to complement Jet Park near Auckland Airport.
A Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) spokesperson told Newshub it will be located in Auckland, and it's been reported other locations are being explored.
"We are currently in the process of readying another facility to quarantine people in the event that we need that, and it is looking likely that we would need that, given the number of cases we're seeing," Hipkins said.
"We're preparing that facility now so that we will have those rooms available if case numbers continue to grow."
Hipkins said compliance is good among cases who are isolating at home.
"The Healthline teams, the call centres and the contact tracer teams are making outbound calls to people to check on their welfare, to check on their isolation.
"Those outbound calls are finding that people are very compliant, so they are where they should be, they're not out there if they've been asked to stay home staying home, so we're seeing really good compliance with that.
"We do have quite good networks in our contact tracing system, it does reach out where it needs to, to ensure people get the support they need.
"In the welfare checks that are being done, if they identify that someone can't go out to the shops or has no one else to do their shopping, then we'd endeavour to facilitate someone who's able to support them in that."
