A news release from the New Zealand Ministry of Health: Probable case of COVID-19 in a returnee. Excerpt:
The Ministry of Health is investigating a positive test result in a person who recently travelled from overseas and completed their stay in managed isolation in a facility in Auckland.
In the case we are investigating and reporting today, the person had travelled in Spain and the Netherlands late last year for work. While in the Netherlands she was in contact with family members, who subsequently tested positive for COVID-19.
The person left the United Kingdom en route to New Zealand, travelling via Singapore, arriving in Auckland on 30 December.
She carried out the required 14 days in managed isolation at the Pullman in Auckland and returned two negative tests as part of routine testing – one on 2 January and one on 10 January.
After meeting the final health assessment for release, she left managed isolation on 13 January and travelled home to the Northland region. She lives with one other person who has not been symptomatic, who has been tested and is also isolating while awaiting results.
The person started developing mild symptoms on 15 January and these progressively got worse. The person had a test taken on Friday 22 January and self-isolated at home.
Late last night the result was returned as positive for COVID-19. Further testing is needed, including a serology blood test, to confirm whether the case is new or historical. However, the CT value from the initial test suggests that it is new and we are treating it as such.
We are undertaking rapid genome sequencing to see if there’s a match to other cases in the managed isolation facility as well as to whether the person has one of the more transmissable variants we’ve seen reported recently.
Importantly, we are working on the assumption any case might be a more transmissible variant and are taking appropriate precautions.
It is too early to say where this infection has occurred — we hope further testing and investigation will helpt to confirm this.
This is a reminder to us all of how COVID-19 is an extremely difficult virus to manage, as we’ve seen overseas and here in New Zealand.
