Covid 19 coronavirus: MOH reveals new times infected person visited MIT

Name: Focus Live: No new Covid-19 community cases but 'we're not out of the woods'
Uploaded: 2021-03-02T13:00:00+13:00
Description: There are no new positive cases in the community - and there are four cases in managed isolation, director general of health Ashley Bloomfield says. Bloomfield said the lack of new cases was encouraging but stressed "we're not out of the woods".

By Nikki Preston

NZ Herald·

1 Mar, 2021 11:14 PM3 mins to read

There are no new positive cases in the community - and there are four cases in managed isolation, director general of health Ashley Bloomfield says. Bloomfield said the lack of new cases was encouraging but stressed "we're not out of the woods".

People who were at MIT in Manukau between 12pm and 7pm on February 22, 24 and 25 are now being considered casual contacts.

The times of when the student referred to as Case M was at the MIT campus on the corner of Manukau Station Rd and Davies Rd have been revised from the initial advice posted on the Ministry of Health's website at the weekend.

Those who visited MIT's Breaktime Cafe on the corner of Manukau Station Rd and Davies Rd on February 22 between 3.15pm-3.45pm, and February 24 between 3.45pm-4.15pm are also being considered as casual contacts. The address of the cafe has been changed from Putney Rd.

People at those locations on those days are being urged to recheck when they were there and to follow the MoH advice online.

Casual contacts need to monitor their health for the next 14 days and if they begin to feel unwell or develop any Covid-19 symptoms they need to contact Healthline on 0800 358 5454, get tested and stay at home until a negative test result is received, according to ministry advice.

Case M is a young man and the older brother of a student at Papatoetoe High School who has tested negative for the virus three times.

However, details have since emerged of Case M's mother Case N going for a walk with the mother in the second home in the cluster Cases D to H despite Auckland being in alert level 3 at the time.

Meanwhile, the people who breached lockdown and isolation rules and plunged Auckland back into lockdown won't be prosecuted.

Director general of health Ashley Bloomfield told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking this morning he was looking for zero days of community cases to determine when lockdown should come to an end and the alert level lowered.

He said one of the cases - case M - which sparked Auckland's lockdown had been out and about for a week while infectious and that was a key reason why the alert level was raised.