Sydney Airport increases screening of Kiwi arrivals after Northland Covid case in community

Passengers from an Air NZ flight arrive into the international arrivals area at Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport in October last year. Photo / Getty Images

NSW authorities have enhanced screening at Sydney Airport after New Zealand reported its first case of Covid-19 in the community in months.

The community case - a 56-year-old woman who lives south of Whangarei - was in managed isolation in the Pullman Hotel.

Between leaving the Pullman and Covid being confirmed on Saturday, the woman visited 28 places around Northland. Anyone there at the same time has been asked to get a test and to self-isolate until the results are known.

Arriving passengers at Sydney's Kingsford Smith International airport are sent onto buses for mandatory 14 day quarantine on January 22. Photo / Getty Images

Australian health authorities urged New Zealanders travelling to Australia to check the list of associated venues and follow health advice if they have been identified as a contact of the case.

"The Ministry of Health in New Zealand is investigating a positive test result in a person who recently travelled from overseas and completed their 14 days of isolation in a facility in Auckland, before later developing symptoms," NSW Health said.

"People who arrived in NSW from New Zealand between Thursday, January 14 and Sunday, January 24, have been asked to check these venues of concern and, if they have been to any, to follow the associated health advice.

"They are also asked to monitor for even the mildest of symptoms and get tested and isolate if they feel unwell, then remain in isolation until a negative result is received – in line with routine advice for everyone in NSW."

New Zealand travellers are permitted to enter NSW without undergoing 14 days of hotel quarantine due to "travel bubble" arrangements.

Meanwhile, for the eighth day in a row, NSW has recorded zero locally acquired cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.