Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong

The Ministry of Health has announced a new case of COVID-19 yesterday.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Dr James Fong says the patient is the wife of case number 110 – the first individual in Rakiraki who tested positive for the virus earlier this week.

Dr Fong says this makes the total number of three cases in Rakiraki forming two clusters.

“We do not know where either of the clusters originated. We continuing to investigate any possible links with existing cases. We also sent samples of the possible results of our most recent cases to our reference lab in Melbourne to see if there is a genetic link between these cases.”

Dr Fong says they are also investigating the possibility that these cases originated from an earlier announced quarantine facility breach.

“I want to explain exactly how that may have happened. The incubation period for the virus is 14 days. That means, from the moment a person comes into contact with someone with the virus and gets infected, it can take up to 14 days for the virus to cause symptoms or register a positive COVID-19 test result. Only after we effectively quarantine an individual for 14 days, and then they register a negative COVID-19 test result, do we know that they do not have COVID-19.”

Dr Fong says this assurance only comes when the individual has zero exposure to the virus for every single day of the two-week quarantine period.

The Permanent Secretary says due to the breach at the Tanoa quarantine facility there could have been infectious staff who transmitted the virus to individuals during their 14 day quarantine period.