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The Ministry of Health released a media statement to thisquality on Wednesday morning confirming four Covid-19 cases have been confirmed following a community case being identified on Tuesday. Genomic sequencing results established the community case is the Delta variant.

Out of the cases, the first of four is a workmate of the community case. Three others were confirmed to be contacts of this workmate, while one contact in this small cluster is a fully vaccinated health worker who has been working in recent days at Auckland City Hospital.

Auckland City Hospital took immediate actions to shut down any potential spread of the virus.

“Those actions include stopping unnecessary movements between wards, testing all staff and patients on the ward the health professional worked on and standing down, testing and isolating staff on the same ward,” the statement says.

“These developments strongly reinforce the importance of the actions taken last night in the move to level 4 and underpin the importance of everyone keeping to the lockdown conditions.”

“The key message from the last lockdown remains relevant: ‘stay at home, save lives, be tested. This will stop any undetected spread in the community.”

Ministry of Health will provide an assessment update later in the day about the likely spread of the virus in the community, including how long it could have been in the circulating community.

Delta can be transmitted just by walking past someone. People are asked only to leave their homes if they need to, wearing a mask when they do so.

If someone has visited a location of interest or run down with cold and flu symptoms, they are asked to call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 or go to healthpoint.co.nz to find local testing stations.

Image: Shutterstock [Delta variant – Covid-19]

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