No confirmed COVID-19 cases for Taranaki

18 January 2021

As Taranaki drops to Alert Level 1 there are no confirmed COVID-19 cases for the region.

More than 1200 people have been tested throughout the region in the past three days, 26 per cent being people of Māori ethnicity.

Taranaki DHB’s Incident Management Team controller Becky Jenkins says the community has responded extremely well to the two positive cases who visited Taranaki over Waitangi weekend.

“We are very grateful to those who have taken the time to get tested if they’ve had symptoms or visited one of the locations of interest in Taranaki, they have been our priority from day one”.

Surveillance testing at the border has also remained a priority and a pop up testing clinic was held at Port Taranaki today with 66 Border workers getting tested.

Ms Jenkins says demand for testing has decreased around the region today but testing centres would remain staffed to cope with any increase following the news Auckland had two new positive cases.

“As part of our resurgence planning we are ready to upscale our staff to cope with a COVID-19 response. We also work collaboratively with other health care providers to ensure demand can be met when needed”.

Taranaki DHB’s Public Health Unit can also confirm that all of the people considered close contacts in Taranaki have been followed up, tested and waiting on results.

Last updated: Thursday, February 18, 2021