Covid-19 coronavirus Delta outbreak: Te Awamutu residents concerned over town's rule breakers, call police

Police are investigating a possible isolation breach in Te Awamutu at the weekend. Photo / Google Maps

There are growing concerns that people linked to those infected with Covid in Te Awamutu are not isolating, with one resident even calling the cops.

Police received a 105 call at the weekend from someone who was concerned about possible visitors to a residential address where close contacts of a Covid-19 patient reside, a police media spokesperson confirmed.

The person living at the address with Covid-19 is currently in an isolation quarantine facility.

Police have spoken to the informant and are now following up inquiries to substantiate these claims, the police spokesperson said.

Under the public health rules, close contacts of a confirmed case are required to isolate for 14 days.

However one Te Awamutu resident told the Herald there are still people coming and going from at least one house where people who are close contacts should be isolating are.

A source said a woman had been visiting people and to the supermarket just prior to testing positive for Covid.

The Herald also understands people at a Te Awamutu household are refusing to get tested despite having symptoms.

Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said yesterday that the Waikato cluster was a "more difficult to reach part of the community" and a "more difficult group to contact trace group of people".

He refused to go into details about what he meant by those comments, saying he would not reveal people's private details.

The Herald reported earlier this week that some of the Te Awamutu/Kihikihi cluster were drug users and linked to well known methamphetamine houses in the town.

A Waikato DHB spokesperson said they had been able to confirm links for almost all cases to date and that exposure events have been between individuals in private settings and this has been supported by the data the DHB was seeing from its widespread testing.

The DHB would not comment on whether anyone in the current Waikato cluster was refusing to get tested, but said if this was the case then it would try and work with them to understand the reason for this. Those who still refused would then be required to isolate for the full 14 days regardless of whether they were a close or casual contact.

As of yesterday, the Waikato DHB was still investigating five cases which were yet to be epidemiologically linked to the current cluster.