A record 41 new cases of Covid-19 were announced yesterday, bringing the total number of cases to 247 (as of 6pm yesterday).

There is also a second case on Aitutaki which was detected yesterday morning. The new case on the island has no direct connection to the first Aitutaki case announced on Monday.

In his daily Covid-19 update, Prime Minister Mark Brown said: “This case, a student, received the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on Monday 7 March and developed flu-like symptoms on Tuesday.”

“Symptoms progressed on Wednesday and this (yesterday) morning, with vomiting and fevers. A RAT test taken earlier (yesterday) returned a positive result.

“The case has been isolated at home and is being monitored by the Aitutaki health care team.”

The person lives with six other people who are currently asymptomatic. They have been ordered into quarantine and have all returned negative RAT tests yesterday.

There are 186 active cases after 61 people have recovered from the virus.

“All are either mildly symptomatic or have no symptoms at all and there are no cases in hospital,” Brown said.

Meanwhile the isolation period for those who test positive for Covid-19 and close contacts is reduced from 10 days to seven, says Brown.

The change follows New Zealand which recently reduced the isolation period and came into effect at midnight Thursday (yesterday).

PM Brown said all people who were in isolation prior to the new rule coming into effect needed to honour the previous 10-day timeframes.

“This (new timeframe) keeps us in line with clinical evidence of Omicron and the likelihood of transmission occurring early in the infectious period and the likelihood of high public adherence to this requirement,” Brown said.

The ban on contact sports and restrictions with indoor and outdoor events and social gatherings has been extended to midnight Thursday, March 17, along with suspension of passenger flights to the Pa Enua (excluding Aitutaki).