Coast household with Covid leads to local testing

Red Beach was added to the Auckland Covid-19 ‘suburbs of interest’ by the Ministry of Health today, and residents are already lining up to get tested at a pop up site in Orewa.

Although there are no specific locations of interest named within Red Beach, or the Hibiscus Coast, the Ministry advises that a household in this general area has three cases, all of which have already been confirmed by the Ministry.

Investigations, including whole genome sequencing, to determine links are continuing.

Information to date suggests that the household members have adhered to alert level guidelines.

Suburbs of interest are named due to a range of factors, the Ministry says. These include recent cases in a suburb not previously identified, new cases or exposure events in a suburb, suburbs where there are multiple unlinked cases, multiple households with cases in an area, or if it’s considered there may be a risk of undetected transmission in an area.

People with or without symptoms are asked to get tested if they live in suburbs of interest and the Ministry thanks everyone for their cooperation with this.

A pop-up community testing centre at Victor Eaves Reserve in Orewa (entry via West oe Road) is open today until 6pm and tomorrow from 8.30am to 5pm.