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Hipkins: Two new Auckland community cases have South African variant

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 28 Jan 2021, 7:24AM
Photo / File
Photo / File

Hipkins: Two new Auckland community cases have South African variant

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 28 Jan 2021, 7:24AM

The two new Auckland Covid cases in the community have the same South African strain of the virus as the Northland woman infected at the Pullman Hotel.

The pair are an adult and a child, Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed this morning.

Genome testing overnight had shown the pair were linked to the first infection at the Pullman Hotel, which was the highly infectious South African strain.

That meant they had potentially come into contact with the returnee with the South African strain while staying at the Pullman, Hipkins told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking.

The first results of the pair's close contact had come back negative. There were six close contacts in total.

The infected pair had not moved far since returning to their home after being in managed isolation.

Hipkins said they were a family that were not particularly active.

There had been extensive testing underway for all returnees that had left the Pullman. Around 300 people had already tested negative.

"There does appear to be something at the Pullman Hotel," he said.

It was unlikely there would be a change in alert levels at this point "but everything is always under review".

Hipkins said it was unfortunate that the information about the infectd pair was shared before the Ministry of Health made an announcement about the latest test results last night.

He said at that point the ministry only had preliminary results so had chose not to release the information.

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