A man considered to have recovered from Covid-19 and released into the community went on to test positive for the virus in hospital, prompting officials to change the criteria for determining a person as recovered.
Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield made the revelation at Thursday’s Covid-19 press conference in Wellington.
“We did have one person who had been a case in managed isolation, had recovered and been discharged, [and] was then assessed at hospital again. And as part of the assessment, a Covid-19 test was taken. That test was positive.
“He was returned to managed isolation – actually the quarantine facility in Auckland – to be reassessed by the clinician, who assessed that the likelihood that the positive test was a result of residual virus which we see, and that his residual symptoms were due to an underlying condition,” Bloomfield said.