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Ashley Bloomfield explains reasons behind extending alert levels

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Tue, 15 Sep 2020, 9:41AM
Photo / File
Photo / File

Ashley Bloomfield explains reasons behind extending alert levels

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Tue, 15 Sep 2020, 9:41AM

The Government and Health Ministry aren't giving up on finding the original source of the current Auckland Covid-19 cluster.

There are now 177 cases making up the cluster, with 55 active.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told Mike Hosking they're keen to find out where the outbreak started.

He's confident it wasn't a case simmering in the community, and believes it must have come through the border somewhere.

"The question is whether it happened through a casual contact at the airport or port, or whether it happened at a managed isolation facility."

Health authorities are backing Auckland University's Covid-19 modelling.

Jacinda Ardern says modelling for the Ministry of Health suggests around a 25 percent chance of Covid-19 cases moving outside the Auckland region.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield says the percentage will continue to drop, if case numbers decrease in the coming days.

He says the modellers put in a range of assumptions - around travel patterns, the number of cases in Auckland, and different likelihoods of the virus spreading.

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