Coronavirus patient attends packed rock concert in New Zealand

A coronavirus patient, the fourth case tested positive in New Zealand, reportedly attended a rock concert performed by the band Tool at Spark Arena, Auckland, the Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told the media. The infected man was isolated in self-quarantine since February 26 as he did not require the hospital level health care at the time.

The patient in his 30s was seen attending the rock concert packed with thousand of people, Ashley confirmed. He said that a woman who is presumably his partner, another confirmed case of the coronavirus detected this past week, is suspected to have accompanied him. This, however, has not yet been established.

"He was in the general admission standing area in the front left-hand quadrant,” Ministry of Health director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield said at a news conference. “We encourage people who were in the general admission standing area to be aware of symptoms of COVID-19.” He further added saying that thousands of people have been exposed to the risk of the COVID-19 infection, the health authorities, although, are hopeful that the risk may be low.

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No way of tracking such a large number 

Ashley further informed the New Zealand media present at the conference saying, “There was no way of tracking the people who were in that area of the concert, they are classed as casual contacts. The advice to them is to call Healthline if they have any symptoms”.  He added saying, “the people we are focused on tracking down right now are the close contacts, and health officials have been in touch with all those people”.  Reminding the New Zealanders that it was the need of the hour to track the presumptive cases, he said, “We want to find cases, finding cases indicates success, not a failure. It's fundamental to protect the community”.

As per reports from the agency, the man and his partner are the confirmed imported cases of COVID-19 that returned from Italy. Health officials were also busy yesterday contacting at least 100 passengers who travelled on two domestic flights between Palmerston North and Auckland with another confirmed case of coronavirus that entered the country.

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