Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Key few days for Hawke's Bay contacts

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern holds a map showing potential Covid contacts at a briefing last week. Photo / Pool

The Ministry of Health has confirmed the number of close contacts of Covid cases in Hawke's Bay has now grown to 62, but no-one has tested positive for the virus.

The Ministry said it expects contact numbers in the region to grow in coming days, as the number of contacts around New Zealand (now more than 20,000) grows further.

Among the 62 are Hawke's Bay staff of Bayleys Realties, who are in the throes of an expected all-clear from a Covid-19 scare stemming from their national awards night in Auckland a fortnight ago.

All of the 33 Bayleys staff and partners from Hawke's Bay who had isolated after being told they had become part of a nationwide contact list now totalling over 24,000 had returned negative test results at the first test, and some have been cleared at the second test, said Bayley's East Coast principal James MacPherson, of Havelock North.

Of the total 277 positive tests results reported in Thursday's update, none were in Hawke's Bay.

Friday marks the end of the 14-day incubation period, from the time of the group's annual awards at Auckland's Spark Arena on the night of August 13.

It was attended by over 1000 people, as was a Mitre 10 staff function in the same venue 24 hours earlier. Guests had come from throughout New Zealand.

Among those isolating nationwide were Hilary Barry, who had been MC at the Mitre 10 function, while comedian Jeremy Corbett had been in a similar role at the Bayleys function.

A barman who worked both functions is among those throughout the country who have tested positive since the new outbreak was revealed on August 17, but MacPherson understood no others were from the Bayleys function.

He said that staff underwent the first test as soon as they became aware of the situation and all had been self-isolating.

Asked for confirmation that Hawke's Bay staff were among those who had isolated, Mitre 10 New Zealand Limited responded that it understood people would have been concerned.

"Attendees were notified that they had been at a location of interest and advised of the actions they and their households needed to take regarding self-isolation and testing.

"The country was at level 1 at the time of the event and appropriate protocols were in place, including QR codes and contract tracing capability."

Those self-isolating for 14 days have to undergo day five and day 12 screening tests.

The outbreak has led to 24,402 contacts identified by Thursday morning, with 65 per cent followed up and isolating.

Of the 277 positive tests throughout the "New Zealand community", 263 were in the Auckland area and 14 in Wellington.

There were six sub-clusters, the biggest being the Birkdale Social Network cluster associated with Case A (35 confirmed cases) and a cluster associated with the Assembly of God church in Mangere (114 confirmed cases).