Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Tauranga retirement village closes after positive case

A Tauranga retirement village staff member has tested positive for Covid-19 - putting up to 40 residents in isolation and closing on-site facilities.

The staff member at the Bob Owens Village care centre returned a positive rapid antigen test before showing up to work on Tuesday.

There are 550 residents at Bob Owens, including those in the care centre along with independent and serviced apartment living. It employs roughly 170 staff members and is operated by Ryman Healthcare.

Ryman Healthcare chief operations officer Cheyne Chalmers said the team member was awaiting the results of a PCR test and isolating at home.

There were 39 residents and all staff in the unit where the case worked underwent rapid antigen and PCR tests on Tuesday. All rapid antigen tests for these staff and residents had come back negative.

Chalmers said these residents were isolating in their room until PCR tests results came through.

The Bob Owens Retirement Village staff member who tested positive for Covid-19 is awaiting PCR test results and isolating at home. Photo / NZME

"We immediately activated our response plan, which included closing our care centre," Chalmers said.

All other facilities in the village had also been closed in an "abundance of caution".

This included the village centre, which had a pool and dining area. Guests were still able to enter the village to visit those living in independent and serviced apartments.

The care centre was closed to visitors aside from those who had palliative or compassionate needs, with visits organised directly with families.

"We have advised public health and are now awaiting the PCR test results back for the staff member."

Chalmers said safety and wellbeing of residents and staff was the "priority" and they would continue to update residents and family members.

The Ministry of Health's website states older people, particularly those who have underlying medical conditions, were more at risk of severe illness from Covid-19.

This also applied to residents at aged care facilities due to their age and frailty.

It said aged care facilities had been shown to be susceptible to "rapid transmission" of Covid-19, with infections occurring in residents and staff.

The news comes as nine positive community cases were reported in the Bay of Plenty yesterday - more than the five in Auckland. It is the first time the Bay has had more cases than Auckland, the ministry confirmed.

There were a total of 17 community cases reported in New Zealand yesterday.

Meanwhile, 921 doses need to be administered before the Bay of Plenty district reaches the 90 per cent double-vaccinated target.

This comes despite the Ministry of Health reporting the Bay of Plenty District Health Board reached the 90 per cent milestone for second doses on Tuesday.

A ministry spokesperson said percentages were rounded to the nearest whole number, so may show 90 per cent with a small number of doses still remaining.

Meanwhile, Mount Maunganui RSA has reopened after earlier being identified by the Ministry of Health as a high-risk place of interest.

Club president Arthur King said five club members had now tested positive for Covid-19 but the club received the all-clear to reopen yesterday.

King said all five cases attended a mini in-house snooker tournament last month and were following public health advice on self-isolating for the required 10 days and getting further tests as needed.

The Ministry of Health named the venue as a close contact place of interest on five dates: December 15, 16, 20, 22 and 24 - the snooker tournament began on December 16.

Meanwhile, all of the Bay's nine cases announced yesterday were in the Tauranga area and linked to previously reported cases.

Four people with the virus remain in Tauranga Hospital, three of whom are in ICU.

Anyone aged 18 and over who had their second vaccination at least four months before yesterday can get their booster dose.

More than 5300 booster shots were given on Tuesday and people who want to get theirs can visit a walk-in vaccination site or book an appointment by calling Healthline.

From January 17, people can book boosters at the Book My Vaccine website. And from the same day, children aged 5-12 will be eligible for the vaccine — those over 12 already eligible.