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Supermarkets, Kmart, Warehouse stores, gym added to ballooning list of locations of interest

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Mon, 23 Aug 2021, 7:34AM
(Photo / Getty)
(Photo / Getty)

Supermarkets, Kmart, Warehouse stores, gym added to ballooning list of locations of interest

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Mon, 23 Aug 2021, 7:34AM

The Ministry of Health have released 12 new locations of interest including a gym in South Auckland and a busy Auckland CBD store.

They are within Auckland and are spread across central, south and west Auckland.

Although not yet featuring on the Ministry of Health's list, the NZ School of Tourism on Queen Street told staff and students a person who visited last Thursday had tested positive for Covid-19.

Official locations include Jetts Gym in Otahuhu, Lone Star Alexandra Park, Glassons on Auckland's Queen St and Soymate Sushi West City in Henderson.

The visits date back to August 16 and 17.

The Warehouse in Clendon is included, as is the Countdown at Westgate Shopping Centre in Massey, and the Countdown in Takanini.

There are now 294 confirmed visits to locations of interest.

Earlier, Kmart in St Lukes, Countdown in Grey Lynn, Farro in Grey Lynn, Starbucks at Westfield in Albany and New World Papatoetoe were added to the ever-growing list.

Wellington and Auckland airport domestic terminals, a church in Freemans Bay and the University of Auckland's Engineering Building City Campus are also on the list.

Tonight, a letter sent to students and staff from the NZ School of Tourism revealed a person later confirmed as having Covid-19 was at its building at 360 Queen Street between 9am and 3pm on Thursday, August 12 and Friday, August 13.

Anyone who was on level 7 or 8 at the same time is now considered a close contact. Others who were in the building are considered casual contacts.

"Close contacts may have been near the person with Covid-19 for enough time to put them at greater risk of catching the illness," the letter said.

"It's important to watch for symptoms... and to stay at home as a precaution.

"Affected staff and students are being asked to self-isolate, watch for symptoms and get tested."

This comes after Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield announced the current cluster had grown to 72 cases, with another case reported in Wellington.

Today, there were 21 new cases of Covid-19 recorded, 20 of those were in Auckland and just one case recorded in Wellington.

The most recently visited location of interest is a Laundromat in ÅŒtara which was visited on Saturday between 8:40 am - 10:30 am.

The locations of interest now spread across various areas in Auckland, Wellington, Coromandel, Bulls, Waiouru and Tokoroa.

Wellington now have 10 locations of interest which date back to Sunday, August 15.

Wellington locations include St Pierre's Sushi Johnsonville, 1841 Bar and Restaurant Johnsonville, Pak'nSave Kilbirnie and Countdown in Newtown and Johnsonville.

Seven Auckland schools including Pukekohe High School, De La Salle High School, Royal Oak intermediate school and McAuley High School have been identified as locations of interest.

Two Auckland universities have also been identified as locations of interest, including the at University of Auckland's Whitaker Hall and AUT's City Campus.

As of 9am, 8667 individual contacts have been identified - the majority being close contacts, the ministry said. The number will increase throughout the day, as records are fully processed.

"Of these contacts, 4124 have been contacted and are self-isolating, and a third have had a test.

"Work is under way to contact the remaining 4500 contacts. Most of these contacts were identified yesterday as a result of case investigations into settings with high numbers of people involved (eg, schools)," health officials say.

Officials will also be working on how to ensure those people all get tested.

Chris Hipkins announced today, the Government has now decided that record-keeping like scanning with the Covid tracer app or manually signing in will be mandatory for most events or businesses at all alert levels.

It will be mandatory to make a record of where you have been, he said, including cafes, restaurants, bars, concerns, aged care, libraries, night clubs and many more.

Places where people are already required to sign in, like gyms and some workplaces, won't need to change what they do.

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