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Update as at 5pm 19 August 2021

Kia Orana

Te Marae Ora (TMO) wishes to provide the following update:

The Cook Islands remains COVID-19 free.

The two Air New Zealand flights that arrived this afternoon were not carrying passengers.

The flight that departed at 3.55pm left with 167 passengers and it is expected that the second of today’s departures will have approximately 127 passengers.

A Ministerial order is in place that requires flights to the Pa Enua to be cargo only flights, with returning flights able to transport passengers and cargo to Rarotonga.

This same Ministerial Order requires all indoor or outdoor events and social gatherings, whether in a private or public setting to be restricted to a maximum of 100 people. For larger events (over 100 people) an exemption must be obtained from the Secretary of Health. All events at which 10-100 people will be in attendance must be registered with Te Marae Ora.

There are also requirements around CookSafe and contract tracing facilities which must be adhered to. Please see the separate release on Social Gatherings for more details.

This Ministerial Order is in place until 11.59pm on Monday 23rd August 2021.

Four testing locations were again operating on Rarotonga and one on Aitutaki today, between 7am and 4pm today.

As at 5pm this evening, a total of 1578 people had been swabbed over the last three days, included in this number is 144 swabs from Aitutaki. The results from the first 1248 swabs have all been negative and TMO is in the process of advising these people.

In line with New Zealand extending the dates around Locations of Interest (2-16 August CKT), any passengers who arrived in the Cook Islands between 2-16 August 2021 and who are symptomatic or had visited a Location of Interest before travelling to the Cook Islands are asked to self-isolate and to contact the Te Marae Ora Contact Tracing Lines as soon as possible if they have not already done so.

These numbers are: 57481, 57482, 57486, 56199 – and 29 664 and 29 110 extn 717.

Te Marae Ora is conscious that calls may not get answered on the first attempt people call, but please do not give up. We do want to hear from you and appreciate your patience.

Once people have been tested they are required to self-isolate whilst they await their test result. 

ENDS: For more information, please visit www.health,gov.ck or contact Jaewynn McKay; jaewynn,mckay@cookislands.gov.ck   +682 55486