There are seven new clusters of Covid-19 cases in New Zealand, doubling the number of clusters overnight.
The Ministry of Health website notes that because they are connected to a known or likely patient zero, they’re not classified as community transmission. However, they do represent the spread of Covid-19 within communities.
The new clusters are in Auckland, Hutt City, Bluff, Marlborough and Blenheim. The two Auckland clusters each involved four cases linked to different businesses – a Colorado ski-boat builder and Spectrum Care, a disability support organisation.
The Ministry didn’t provide any further details about the two clusters in Hutt City. One involves four cases so far, the other with three.
A visit by the Air Force rugby team to the United States has led to the development of a cluster of nine cases in Blenheim.
The Bluff cluster involves eight cases linked to a wedding held there, and the Marlborough cluster of six cases has been connected to an Alzheimer’s support group.
Meanwhile, five of the previous seven clusters have continued to grow. The largest, a cluster of cases linked to students and staff at Auckland’s Marist College, has now swelled to 48. The World Hereford Conference in Queenstown is now linked to 24 cases, and the Matamata cluster has nearly doubled from 12 to 23 cases overnight.
Clusters in a rest home in Hamilton and a workplace in Christchurch saw a modest growth in cases, while the two Wellington-based clusters, linked to a group trip to the US and a wedding, each saw a decrease as “probable” cases were demoted to “suspected”.
