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National | Ministry of Health

Pacific and Māori 'predominant ethnicities' affected in current outbreak - Dr Bloomfield

The current community outbreak is predominantly affecting Pacific and Māori people, Dr Ashley Bloomfield confirmed at this afternoon's briefing from Wellington.

"I know that as of yesterday around 50 per cent of cases identified as Pacific and around 30 per cent as Māori, so yes these are the predominant ethnicities in this particular outbreak," Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said.

He was responding to a reporter's question whether more Pacific or Māori people had been affected in this cluster.

Earlier in the briefing, Dr Bloomfield said there are seven new confirmed cases of Covid-19 to report.  All the new cases are in the community and there are no new cases to report from managed isolation, he said.

Six of the new cases are linked to previous cases in the cluster and one of the new cases remains under investigation. Dr Bloomfield said this is in addition to the one case from yesterday in which the link to the cluster is also still being investigated. He said they were confident both cases would be linked to the outbreak.

To date, 54 people linked to the cluster have been moved to a quarantine facility, including 24 of the people who have tested positive.

The number of active cases in NZ is now 56, of which 37 are from the community outbreak and 19 are imported cases in quarantine, Dr Bloomfield said

Of the 37 cases in the community outbreak, he said 35 have been clearly linked to the cluster and the other two remain under investigation.