Covid 19 coronavirus: Auckland BnB guests not told host tested positive

The bed and breakfast guests of a man who recently tested positive for Covid-19 say they have not been contacted by health officials.

This was despite them coming into contact with the man on Saturday at his Coatesville BnB in north Auckland, media outlet Stuff reports.

The man was earlier exposed to the virus at his fulltime workplace.

Health authorities defended their decision not to test the guests or tell them about the man's positive case because they were not considered close contacts.

It comes as a new cluster linked to a marine engineer had increased to include three other positive cases and has businesses throughout Auckland scrambling after being alerted to links to new infections.

The engineer was thought to have caught Covid-19 while working on a foreign vessel before passing it onto two colleagues.

There was no suggestion of any wrongdoing by anyone linked to the latest outbreak, health authorities have said.

The 27-year-old engineer has been hailed a "hero" by epidemiologists for getting tested so quickly after feeling unwell and limiting his exposure to others.

The owner of the Coatesville BnB, aged in his 60s, crossed paths with his guests a day before the Ministry of Health announced the first case from the current cluster on Sunday.

It was not until Sunday, after he crossed paths with the guests, that the Ministry of Health publicly announced the first case in what has come to be known as the marine employee cluster.

The man was understood to work fulltime at Albany-based Wright Technologies along with the marine engineer, who first contracted the virus.

He and his wife were now staying at the Jet Park Hotel quarantine facility after earlier going into isolation at their home when news of the first case broke, Stuff reported.

The pair were understood to operate several units from the BnB on their Coatesville property.

Two guests told Stuff they ran into the man on Saturday but had still not heard from authorities as of Thursday, so were unaware of the man's positive Covid case.