What you need to know about Christchurch's Covid-19 cases
Thursday, 28 October 2021
There are two cases of Covid-19 in Christchurch. Here is everything we know so far.
Both cases were reported to the Ministry of Health late on Wednesday. The ministry publicly announced the cases just after 6am on Thursday.
The first case is a woman in her 50s who spent five days in Auckland and returned to Christchurch on October 15 (13 days ago as of Thursday).
The woman's travel was allowed because of a childcare exemption. She travelled to Auckland to care for whānau. She returned two negative Covid-19 tests before flying – one in Auckland and one in Christchurch.
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She developed symptoms on October 18 – and two days later a relative, a male truck driver in his 40s, developed symptoms too.
The pair live in the same household in Bishopdale, a suburb in Christchurch's northwest. They are both unvaccinated and are the only people living in the household.
The man spent three or four days working whilst potentially infectious and drove around Christchurch and north of the city.
The woman could have been infectious in the community for just under two weeks.
Thirteen locations of interest had been identified in Christchurch as of 4.30pm on Thursday. The locations were visited between October 18 and October 27.
They include dairies, eateries, a New World and a Burger King.
The locations are relatively spread out in the northwest of Christchurch, except for one location, a dairy in Wainoni.
The pair had not been regularly scanning contact-tracing QR codes at places they visited, but were cooperating with health officials.
They are now residing in a Christchurch managed isolation and quarantine facility.
Nine close contacts have been identified, all of whom are now isolating.
Christchurch’s alert level has not been changed because of the current cases. The city remains at alert level 2.
Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins said at Thursday’s 1pm press conference that according to the public risk assessment so far, a move up the alert levels was not required.
A wastewater sample taken in Christchurch on Tuesday was negative, which Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said ruled out a “reasonable number of cases” in the city.
There are two community-based Covid-19 testing centres in Christchurch, and both have seen a surge in demand. One of them, in Orchard Rd near the airport, will remain open later than usual on Thursday. Additional staff have been brought in.
An extra 2600 slots have been added for walk-in vaccinations too.
Canterbury’s vaccinations are not yet at a level where the region can change from the alert level system to the new traffic light system for managing Covid-19 restrictions.
Only 69 per cent of the Canterbury DHB region is fully vaccinated.
About 101,000 people from Canterbury still need to have a second jab for the region to become 90 per cent fully vaccinated.
Apart from last week’s Blenheim case, Thursday's two cases are the first in the South Island for almost a year – November 2 being the last case.