NZ launches testing blitz as new cases found in Auckland

New Zealand will launch a seven-day testing blitz designed to test another 70,000 people for coronavirus.

Auckland’s community cluster grew by another seven cases on Tuesday, taking the country’s total number of active cases to 129. Nineteen of those are returned travellers who have contracted the disease.

Ordered testing blitz:NZ Health and Education Minister Chris Hipkins.Credit:Tom Lee/Stuff

A total of 160 close contacts to the Auckland cluster, which is the country’s largest, are now in quarantine and 89 of those people have tested positive.

There are eight people in hospital with the disease, and three of those people are in ICU.
For a second day in a row, the total number of tests fell below 5000 tests in a day, to a relatively low 4434 tests.

Health Minister Chris Hipkins announced the testing blitz and said that of the 70,000 tests – or 10,000 per day – the government wanted about 7000 to be conducted in Auckland each day.

Hipkins said the dip in testing rates over the last two days indicated testing fatigue had set in.

"It’s challenging to keep up this pace but it is doable," Hipkins said.

"Please don’t relax now, we need to continue our testing effort."

"We haven’t quite got this cluster completely identified yet, we do need people to take that test when asked."

Six more mobile testing units will be set up in Auckland and deployed to churches and schools.

In a change of policy, Hipkins said some asymptomatic people would now be tested too in a move designed to ensure the outbreak was fully identified.

As part of the effort to crack down on the outbreak, about 13,000 people working in managed isolation, quarantine facilities and at the border, have been tested in recent weeks.

About 1.8 million New Zealanders have now downloaded the country’s COVID trace app.

More to come

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