New Zealand Covid-19 resurgence - A timeline of events. Video / NZ Herald
A Countdown supermarket in West Auckland is closed for deep cleaning after a person with Covid-19 visited the store.
The New Lynn store inside LynnMall in West Auckland was closed this morning, after the company was informed of the visit by the Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS).
A person who tested positive for the coronavirus visited the store on Friday, September 4, from 8pm until 8.30pm.
Kiri Hannifin, Countdown's general manager of health and safety, said today's deep cleaning was an "extra precautionary measure" in line with the company's protocols.
"The Ministry of Health has advised us that these visits are deemed low risk and casual contact exposures," she said.
"We already have rigorous cleaning and hygiene practices in place in all of our stores, and have had a raft of other strong safety controls in place since the change of alert levels on Wednesday, 12 August."
Customers are urged to continue using the NZ COVID tracker app when shopping at a Countdown store.
The New Lynn store was closed for deep cleaning just three weeks ago after a person who later tested positive for Covid-19 visited the store.
It was one of four Countdown sites closed in August following a visit from a customer infected with the virus.
The Browns Bay, Te Atatū South, St Lukes and Auckland City stores were all closed last month for deep cleaning following visits from people who had tested positive for Covid-19.
On it's website, Countdown said the health and safety of its staff and customers was of the utmost priority.
"We've got a range of safety measures in place, including extra cleaning, perspex screens at checkout and physical distancing," it said.
"We're also strongly encouraging our team and customers to wear masks when they are in our stores."
Six new cases today
Meanwhile there are six new cases of Covid-19 today, four of which are in the community and linked to the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship Church "mini-cluster".
Two of the cases are in managed isolation - one is a man in his 20s who arrived from the Philippines on September 3 and was at a managed isolation facility when he tested positive on day 3 of his stay.
The second case is a female in her late teens who arrived on the same flight from the Philippines and also tested positive on day 3.
The four new cases in the community are all linked to the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship Church group within the Auckland August cluster. Auckland Regional Public Health is actively tracing and testing their contacts.
Four people with Covid-19 are in hospital. Two are stable and in isolation - one in Middlemore and one in North Shore hospitals. Two are in ICU, at North Shore and Waikato hospitals.
With today's six new cases and one additional recovered case, New Zealand's total number of active cases is 123. Of those, 43 are imported cases in managed isolation facilities, and 80 are community cases.
