NZ hunt to find Sydney source of Auckland’s Covid outbreak

New Zealand will leave “no stone unturned” to connect its Covid outbreak to NSW, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has vowed to leave “no stone unturned” in finding the source of the Covid-19 outbreak which has plunged her country into lockdown, after genomic sequencing confirmed it was related to NSW’s breakout.

The comments come ­despite there still being no ­indications of how the patient zero of the country’s current spate of cases, a 58-year-old Auckland man, contracted the Delta variant of the virus from Sydney.

The Prime Minister ann­ounced on Wednesday seven total cases were now associated with the Auckland outbreak, which triggered a strict countrywide lockdown lasting at least three days.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Picture: Getty Images

The Prime Minister said investigators were working closely in “identifying what is a case that at some point originated from Australia” and flagged examinations of recent flights from Australia to see if there had been a possible quarantine breach.

She also watered down concerns that unknown cases had circulated in the community before the 58-year-old man was identified, as well as ruling out any link with Australia’s national rugby union team the Wallabies, who have been in New Zealand for the past fortnight after playing two Test matches against the All Blacks.

“We moved very early on in the NSW outbreak even when they had quite small numbers,” Ms Ardern said.

“We would expect we would have seen it come through in community testing or waste water (if there were unknown cases).

“(The Wallabies) had been in Queensland (before coming to New Zealand) where there have been far less issues (than NSW).”

New Zealand Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said up to 100 community cases could now be ­expected based on modelling.

Exposure sites already ­include a school, a church, a casino and multiple pubs and restaurants, leading to concerns the outbreak could spiral out of control.

Of particular concern is a vaccinated Auckland nurse who worked four shifts at Auckland City Hospital while potentially infectious.

In a statement, the New Zealand Ministry of Health said investigators were working to see if the original case was related to recent arrivals from NSW, but gave no other indication of how the virus may have been transmitted.

A lone pedestrian walks down Cuba Mall in Wellington during the first day of New Zealand’s national lockdown. Picture: Getty Images

“Further investigations have continued … and the Ministry is working closely with (Environmental Science and Research) to determine the source of these infections,” the statement read.

“ESR is also examining cases who have recently arr­ived from NSW to determine if there is any possible link.”

The outbreak is the first case of community transmission in New Zealand in more than six months and comes as the country grapples with its own low rates of vaccination.

Originally published as NZ hunt to find Sydney source of Auckland’s Covid outbreak