Covid-19 Omicron: Breakfast's Jenny-May Clarkson off air after potential contact with Covid case

TVNZ's Breakfast presenter Jenny-May Clarkson is off air after potential contact with a case of Covid-19.

Her co-host Matty McLean revealed the news on Breakfast this morning, explaining that Clarkson was absent as she was a "casual contact" and was "taking precautions".

A casual contact is someone who has typically been at a location of interest as someone who has tested positive.

Matty McLean revealed the news on air this morning. Photo / TVNZ

They are different to a close contact, who is defined as having had contact with a person infectious with Covid-19. Close contacts are often people you live or work with, but can be anyone who was close to you for more than 15 minutes without wearing a mask, or someone you spent time with in a small or poorly ventilated indoor space.

If you become a close contact, you must self-isolate for 10 days regardless of vaccination status. You must also get a Covid test straight away and then on day five and day eight - immediately if you develop symptoms.

Yesterday as of 1pm, 306 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in the community - the highest daily number in New Zealand since the beginning of the pandemic.

The news comes after the Breakfast team reassembled this week following a summer hiatus, with a fresh new set. Breakfast ratings also soared above the new-look AM show viewership on their first day. sitting 86 per cent higher for audiences 5 and over and 115 per cent higher in the key 25-54 age group, according to Nielsen.

Clarkson is not the first TVNZ host to have a brush with Covid-19. Last year during the August Delta outbreak, Seven Sharp's Hilary Barry was off-air after MC-ing an event linked to a positive Covid-19 case.

Jenny-May Clarkson is self-isolating after contact with a Covid case. Photo / Supplied

Barry was the celebrity MC at a Mitre 10 events dinner at Spark Arena.

Almost a thousand people at the corporate awards dinner were told they were close contacts after a bar worker tested positive for Covid-19.

The Mitre 10 2021 Awards ceremony at Spark Arena in downtown Auckland last August was attended by people from across New Zealand.

Barry said she arrived at TVNZ before being told that someone at the event had since tested positive.

"Every single person at that event is considered a close contact."

She said she felt "fine . . . a box of birds".

Prior to Barry's brief appearance on Seven Sharp - talking from her house - co-host Jeremy Wells had told viewers that he was flying solo as Barry had "to leave in a hurry".