Another close contact has tested negative for COVID-19 but several results are still pending as Auckland remains in lockdown for another day.
Three community cases recorded in south Auckland over the weekend prompted Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Sunday to throw the region into lockdown and the rest of New Zealand into alert level 2.
No changes to the alert levels were made by the Government on Monday, despite no new community cases being detected.
However, 109 close contacts of the infected family have been identified. They include students and teachers at Papatoetoe High School, which one of the cases attends. Fourteen of the 36 close contacts at the school have so far tested negative for the respiratory illness, as well as all clost contacts of the father and the people who travelled with the cases in a car. Thirty-three close contacts in total have returned negative results, 74 are pending.
No source of the outbreak has yet been identified, but genomic sequencing has revealed the cases have the more transmissible UK variant of the virus.
What you need to know:
- Three community cases of COVID-19 were detected in south Auckland over the weekend, leading the Government to impose an alert level 3 lockdown on Auckland and put the rest of the country under alert level 2
- The infected family - a mother, father and daughter - have the UK variant of the illness. The cases do not link directly to any other positive cases found in New Zealand to date
- Close contacts of the cases are being tested, with no new positive cases yet found
- No new cases in the community or in MIQ were announced on Tuesday
- A decision on alert levels will be announced at 4:30pm on Wednesday
- The mother works at LSG Sky Chefs, a company which does laundering and catering for airlines. The woman is not believed to have been infectious while at work so her workmates are not considered close contacts
- Products from LSG Sky Chefs have been pulled from Foodstuffs supermarket shelves out of an abundance of precaution
- Police checkpoints have been set up at the border to Auckland, with only those with a valid reason for travel being allowed through
- An updated list of locations visited by the three cases can be viewed here. There are instructions for individuals who were also at the same locations as the cases at the same time
- Monday saw the arrival of 60,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine. Border workers are set to be vaccinated from Saturday
- An up-to-date list of testing locations is available here.
5pm - The National Party says it will push for mandatory daily saliva testing of border workers and people in MIQ since "better testing" gives a better chance to detect the virus in the community.
Chris Hipkins said during Question Time earlier on Tuesday that saliva tests are accredited only as a surveillance test, and are currently being undertaken in facilities across Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch in addition to PCR tests.
"This is a fast-moving scenario," National leader Judith Collins says. "We need to be picking up every piece of new science we can."
4:45pm - The first vaccine to be rolled out in New Zealand appears to work just as well against the more infectious UK strain of the virus, based on real-world data coming out of Israel.
The Middle Eastern nation leads the world in terms of vaccinating its population, with three-quarters already having received at least one dose of the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech. The aim is to have everyone, excluding those living in areas governed by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, vaccinated by the end of March.
Israel struck a deal with the vaccine's manufacturer to supply real-time data on the rollout, and the initial findings are promising. Researchers tested 600,000 people who've received the vaccine and 600,000 who hadn't yet out of the country of 9 million.
"There was a 94 percent reduction in the rate of symptomatic infection and a 92 percent decrease in the rate of serious illness compared to 600,000 similar [subjects] who were not vaccinated," Clalit Health Services said in a statement.
"Vaccine efficacy is maintained in all age groups, including those aged 70."
4:30pm - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield will hold a press conference on Wednesday at 4:30pm about New Zealand's alert levels.
Currently, alert levels 2 and 3 are in place until 11:59pm on Wednesday.
There will be a 1pm press conference with the daily COVID-19 numbers, and then Cabinet will meet at 3pm before announcing its decision.
The Prime Minister's Office says Cabinet wants to ensure it has the most up-to-date information before making the decision and going slightly later in the day means they get all the testing results possible to inform the decision.
4:15pm - Auckland Transport is reminding people using public transport to keep a one metre distance from other passengers, scan QR codes with the COVID Tracer app while onboard, and to wear a face covering.
4pm - Arindam Basu, associate professor at the University of Canterbury's College of Education, Health and Human Development, says saliva tests, when compared to PCR nasopharyngeal swab tests, appear to perform "slightly worse".
"A systematic review published [recently] reveals that saliva testing and nasopharyngeal swab testing have a similar level of accuracy at detecting positive cases," he says
"The saliva tests overall, when pooled together were 83.2 percent accurate, this indicates that on an average such a test will miss about 17 percent true positive cases.
"But the nasopharyngeal swab tests are similar at around 85 percent accurate, suggesting that overall, when all things are considered, they will miss about 15 percent true positive cases."
Basu says that in terms of how accurate these two tests are, there is little difference, but the advantage of saliva tests is how easy it is to get a sample from someone.
"In final analysis, it may be said that saliva tests are as good as nasopharyngeal swab tests when it comes to their head to head diagnostic performance, but saliva tests are more convenient."
3:45pm - The streets of central Auckland are nearly empty under alert level 3.
A tweet from one person in the city shows the usually bustling Queen St with a single courier van and another vehicle far in the distance on the road.
3:30pm - There are "two key things" health authorities Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says he will be looking at that will inform his recommendation on whether to downgrade New Zealand's alert levels.
At the moment, the outlook is rosy. Since the initial discovery of the community cases on Sunday, New Zealand has gone two days without finding any more - despite tens of thousands of tests being carried out in that period.
Dr Bloomfield says these test results will be "fundamental" to whether he recommends a de-escalation of alert levels to Cabinet on Wednesday.
3:15pm - The Ministry of Health says there's been a surge in demand for testing since the three cases were confirmed.
"We would like to acknowledge the hardworking staff at our testing centres, general practices and other clinics who continue to swab for COVID-19. We also thank everyone who patiently waited for their COVID-19 tests yesterday," they say in a statement.
"We are anticipating strong demand again today. It's important the right people can get access to testing - so please don't rush to a centre if you are well, or if you weren't at one of the current locations of interest."
Information on where to get a test anywhere in New Zealand can be found here.
On Monday, 5818 tests were processed. The seven-day rolling average up to Monday is 4380 tests processed. The total number of tests processed by laboratories to date is 1,595,770.
3:05pm - What impact will alert level 3 have on America's Cup racing? Melissa Chan-Green and Tom McRae talk to four-time America's Cup winner and former tactician for Team New Zealand and Swiss Alinghi syndicate Brad Butterworth to find out.
2:55pm - Australia's medical regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), has granted provisional approval to the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine for use in Australia.
"Our vaccination program has the backing of Australia's best medical experts and that means that we can proceed along the path that we have set out," Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters.
"I look forward to working with all the states and territories and medical health professionals across the country, those involved in logistics supply chain, to ensure we can get this out right across the country.
It's going to make a huge difference to how we live here in Australia this year, and in the years ahead."
2:45pm - The Green Party's Teanau Tuiono asks Chris Hipkins: "Are all Government employees and contractors in managed isolation and quarantine facilities and at the border being paid at least the living wage?"
Hipkins says most of these people are paid the living wage - there are some MIQ facilities that are working to bring their employees up to this pay level. Members of the police, defence, and other Government agencies are paid at least the living wage, he says.
He adds he encourages businesses to be "good employers" and to treat their workers well.
2:35pm - David Seymours asks Jacinda Ardern: "Does she stand by her statement regarding raising COVID-19 alert levels, 'Three days will give us time to gather further information, undertake large scale testing, and establish if there has been wider community transmission'; if so, does she believe the alert levels will be able to be reduced at the end of these three days?"
Ardern says she does stand by this statement. She adds that Cabinet will review these settings on Wednesday after looking closely at data from these cases and test results. Currently, the alert levels are in place until 11:59pm tomorrow.
She says she expects as many test results of close contacts to come back tomorrow, and adds health staff are prioritising processing tests of close contacts.
2:30pm - Chris Bishop asks Chris Hipkins: "Was the laundry worker at LSG Sky Chefs, who contracted COVID-19, required to get a regular COVID-19 test, and how many people handling objects associated with the border are not required to get a COVID-19 test on a regular basis?"
Hipkins says she wasn't, since handling laundry with gloves and other protective measures is deemed low risk. He adds there are tens of thousands of people who handle items from the border, but don't necessarily work at the border.
Bishop follows up by asking why baggage handlers have to get regular tests, but not border-adjacent workers. Hipkins responds by saying a fomite transmission is more likely to occur with baggage handlers rather than with laundry workers, but he is looking closely at this.
2:25pm - National's Dr Shane Reti asks Chris Hipkins: "Has the Government made daily COVID-19 saliva testing compulsory for border workers; if not, why not?"
Hipkins says no, not at this stage. He says it's accredited as a surveillance test, and is currently being undertaken in facilities across Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch in addition to PCR tests.
"We are rolling it out more broadly, but there are additional hurdles, including the validation of test results," he says.
2:15pm - David Seymour asks a follow up question about saliva testing, where he references a study that says this type of testing is as accurate as PCR testing.
Ardern says they are working through a validation process to get it underway in New Zealand. COVID-19 isn't as prevalent in New Zealand as it is around the world, which she says makes it more difficult to validate.
She adds they're using both PCR and saliva tests at the same time for border workers to ensure there's "rigour".
2:10pm - The next question is from Opposition leader Judith Collins to the Prime Minister, and she asks: "Does she stand by all of her Government’s statements and actions related to the COVID-19 response?"
Ardern says she does.
Collins follows up by asking when Ardern first found out about the three new cases. She responds by saying she found out somewhere between 11am and midday on Sunday. Ardern says the health unit worked very quickly to see whether there was a link between the border and these cases, or if there was a community outbreak.
Ardern says public health authorities contacted organisers of large events in Auckland on Sunday. In terms of the Big Gay Out, she says that event was already underway on Sunday when she found out about the cases.
2:05pm - The first question is from Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngawera-Packer, who asks: "Does he accept that Māori are a population group particularly vulnerable to COVID-19; if so, can he confirm that there is a specific vaccine roll-out plan for Māori?"
Hipkins responds by saying he does accept this, and says they're developing a vaccine plan specifically for Māori. He adds Māori will be "well-represented" in the first round of vaccines since many work in border roles.
2pm - The Government is being questioned about its COVID-19 response in Parliament's Question Time.
You can follow along with that in the updates here.
1:55pm - ACT leader David Seymour says as the world starts getting on top of the virus, New Zealand's focus must turn to how the country will move from closing borders and rolling lockdowns to preparing systems for safely reconnecting with a post-vaccine world.
"While we continue to witness death and economic destruction on a global scale, the rolling average of new daily coronavirus cases worldwide has almost halved in the last month, from 740,000 on 12 January to 398,000 yesterday - the first time it has reduced below 400,000 since last October," he says.
"This trend will continue as the global vaccination campaign also picks up speed.
"Today's data from Bloomberg shows 78 countries have administered 176 million doses of vaccine, with the present daily rate being almost 6 million doses, 15 times the present rate of new daily cases."
He then referenced media outlet The Economist, which called New Zealand shutting its borders a "draconian policy" that "makes no sense as a permanent defence".
"Quite right, and as ACT has been saying since releasing our comprehensive COVID-19 response policy last August, we must undertake the work to plan how we reintegrate ourselves with the world as safely as possible," Seymour says.
"ACT has good ideas and policies to help New Zealand's COVID recovery boat go faster, and we want the Government to embrace them."
1:40pm - The plan health officials have to roll out vaccines is to give them to those who are at a higher risk, and Hipkins says Māori are disproportionately at risk. He adds they're working with Māori organisations on this.
On testing capacity, Dr Bloomfield says they aren't worried about lab capacity, they're instead concerned about having staff available to do that testing.
1:35pm - ESR is continuing to look at everyone who's been infected with the B117 variant since November to see if there's any epidemiological link. The genomic link internationally is still a possibility, given the variant these cases have is common around the world.
1:30pm - Vaccines will be administered to border workers at their workplace, Hipkins says, alongside their routine testing. Border workers are due to start receiving their first dose of the vaccine this Saturday.
Border workers' household contacts will have to go to specific sites when it's their turn to be vaccinated since they don't the public going into MIQ facilities.
1:25pm - Dr Bloomfield says the accreditation of saliva COVID-19 tests are fine, but the issue they want to be sure that these tests would pick up every single case and not return false negatives.
1:20pm - Hipkins says the Government will look at how it can encourage greater uptake of COVID Tracer app scanning and what more tools it can give businesses.
"New Zealand responds well when we are dealing with COVID. We don't necessarily prepare well".
The 2000 casual plus contacts includes other Papatoetoe High School students and their family members as well as people at locations of interest. Those tests are being processed on Tuesday.
1:15pm - Hipkins says no new cases is "encouraging", but it is too early to speak about alert level changes. There are still a large number of outstanding swabs.
Officials are continuing to look into the testing settings for workers on the periphery of the border and whether they should be part of the normal testing regime.
On saliva testing, Hipkins says they still use the same resources as PCR tests, but the overall confidence in each test result is lower. PCR remains the gold standard. Officials have to consider the impact of the chances of getting more false-negatives. He won't rule out expanding saliva testing as an addition to PCR, not as an alternative.
Dr Bloomfield says the sector is not reluctant to use saliva testing. Some saliva tests are better than others.
1:10pm - Dr Bloomfield reminds people without symptoms or who were not at a location of interest that they should not attempt to get tested. This will help with queues.
He thanks those expressing their gratitude to MIQ staff and health workers. Hipkins echoes this thanks.
The COVID minister says the Pullman Hotel is receiving its first guests after its shutdown following a deep clean and investigation into January's cases. It is opening at 50 percent of capacity for the first two weeks and only the lower floors will operate to limit elevator use and to upgrade air filtering systems in the lifts. A CCTV upgrade is now complete. New processes are in place limiting movement while corridor ventalition will operate 24-hours a day.
He said the Pullman Hotel has consistently received good feedback.
These improvements are being rolled out across the wider MIQ system.
Hipkins says an alert level update will be announced tomorrow.
1:05pm - ESR has been doing daily wastewater testing in places of interest in Auckland, New Plymouth and Waikato. Dr Bloomfield says this can detect COVID-19 cases and will help officials understand if there is any in the community. There have been no positive results yet in the Papatoetoe area.
There are now 109 close contacts outside of the household. This is related to a new location of interest, a medical centre waiting room. The father was here before he was symptomatic.
"This increase in number is predominantly because of a very precautionary approach to people classified as close contacts at a new location of interest, which was a medical centre waiting room - where the father wasn't in the red lane for COVID testing. This was well before he developed any symptoms or tested positive."
All workmates of the father and people who travelled to Taranaki with the family have tested negative. There are 14 negative results from the high school close contacts out of a total of 36.
More than 2000 casual-plus contacts have been found.
1pm - Chris Hipkins says there are no new community cases or in MIQ.
The death on Sunday in North Shore Hospital has now been officially recorded as a COVID-19 death. That takes our total to 26 deaths.
The three positive COVID-19 cases remain in quarantine. An investigation into a source is ongoing and Dr Ashley Bloomfield doesn't want to jump to any conclusions yet.
On Monday, there was 5818 tests processed. It's encouraging there have been no positive cases, Dr Bloomfield says. There were more than 15,000 swabs taken on Monday. More than 10,000 of those came from Auckland.
Additional testing centres have been opened to support testing efforts.
12:45pm - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is pushing back on "an attempt to build a case for our opposition" to COVID-19 saliva testing, as National leader Judith Collins calls for it to be mandated.
The Government started offering "less invasive" saliva testing in January at quarantine facilities as a "precautionary measure" in the wake of more contagious variants of the coronavirus popping up in managed isolation facilities.
Collins is now calling on the Government to make daily saliva testing mandatory for border workers and arrivals to New Zealand, in the wake of new community cases of COVID-19 emerging in the community, sparking Auckland's third lockdown.
12:35pm - A press conference from COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins and the Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield is coming up at 1pm. You will be able to watch that on Newshub.co.nz or on Three.
12:25pm - The NZTA is reminding Kiwis that face coverings are mandatory on public transport under alert level 2 and above.
"Put a mask on before you board, scan the service's QR code using the NZ COVID Tracer app, and make sure Bluetooth is activated in the app."
