There are 12 new confirmed cases of Covid in the community and one probable case, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says. One of the 13 cases is in hospital. Video / Chris Tarpey
A casual worker at Snowplanet in north Auckland has tested positive for Covid-19, but the Ministry of Health had advised the man was unlikely to have been infectious while working at the indoor ski centre, the company said.
The man last worked at Snowplanet on Wednesday, August 5 and later tested positive to Covid-19 on Tuesday, August 11, director of snow sports and slope operation Brad Alywin said.
"We've been advised by the Ministry of Health that it is highly unlikely he was infected at the time he was working for us at Snowplanet and so the risk of infection for staff and customers is very low," Alywin said.
"Nevertheless, through caution, we've advised staff to isolate for three days, and if they are showing symptoms to get tested and checked."
"We've directed our staff ... to call the District Health Board directly, seek advice, get a test."
Alywin said all Snowplanet staff were "customer service facing" for the most part.
"Everyone from front office to back office, we are always on or near the floor," he said.
Alywin said the Ministry of Health was not treating staff and customers at Snowplanet as people who needed to be contact traced in relation to the man.
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has updated the nation. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He said the man was a casual employee at Snowplanet who "very rarely" worked at the ski centre.
"He does have another job and that other job put him into contact with this cluster," Alywin said.
"Through his other employment he had a close contact."
The man was understood to have contracted Covid-19 from a close contact at his other workplace.
That workplace was linked to the recent cluster of Covid-19 positive cases that have broken out around New Zealand and became public on Tuesday when the first person in the community tested positive to the virus in 102 days.
The news comes after director general of Health Ashley Bloomfield today said there were 12 new confirmed cases of Covid in the community and one probable case.
One of the 13 cases is in hospital. All the new cases are linked to the existing cluster, though one - the person in Auckland Hospital - is still under investigation.
Two of the confirmed cases are in Tokoroa and are connected to a family member of the South Auckland family which first tested positive this week.
Bloomfield said the trip to Tokoroa happened while the people were feeling okay. There will be a testing station set up in Tokoroa. The wider whānau of the Tokoroa cases will be moved to a quarantine facility.
Bloomfield said the Tokoroa cases were "clearly linked" to the Auckland cluster but he wouldn't pre-empt the advice he would give Cabinet about alert levels.
Thirty-eight people linked to the cluster have already moved into quarantine facilities.
Bloomfield said while he was never pleased to see another case, it was good to see they could be traced back to the original family.
"I think we're getting an increasingly good picture ... and the picture we're getting is a very good one."
Bloomfield said the index case - where the infection originally came from - "is still a piece of the puzzle we're looking to fill".
Bloomfield said there was some pool sampling happening where there was a low likelihood of a positive result. Tests from Auckland were being prioritised.
Bloomfield said the case in Auckland Hospital was the most recent case so it didn't yet concern him that it was still "under investigation".
Health Minister Chris Hipkins said there were rumours about a positive case in Wellington - but they were incorrect.
Neither Hipkins or Bloomfield said they had information about someone being Covid-positive in Wellington, when asked about a ramen shop saying a confirmed case had dined there.
Hipkins said because officials still didn't know how the original family became infected they were "absolutely scrupulous" with testing at the border, including the maritime border.
Hipkins would not answer questions about whether it was unhelpful for the Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters to broadcast from his Parliamentary office that there had been a breach at the border.
The church congregation at the Christian Church of Samoa Māngere East Puaseisei, on Winthrop Way, Māngere. Image / Google
Peters told Australian media yesterday evening a border breach was to blame for community transmission.
Bloomfield said it was hard to know whether the church service in Māngere East was a "super-spreader" event because the results hadn't come back yet.
Bloomfield clarified a "super spreader" was a person who appeared to "shed a lot" of the virus, not a particular event.
Auckland Regional Public Health are tracing close contacts at the three schools which were reported by media this morning - Taeaofou i Puaseisei Preschool, Glamorgan School in Torbay and Auckland's Southern Cross Campus.
