New Zealand

Hundreds of seasonal workers have been stranded in New Zealand over recent months, some with expiring visas.

Pacific leaders had already raised concern about those with uncertain immigration status missing out on assistance or healthcare because of fear of being discovered.

However the minister, Chris Hipkins, encouraged them to get tested for Covid-19 if they needed to.

"We will not use the information collected through the Covid-19 testing process for other purposes, including for immigration purposes," Mr Hipkins said.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said there were no new cases to report from managed isolation.

The one new case that remains under investigation is in addition to the one case yesterday that is being investigated.

"But in both cases we feel quite confident that they will be linked to the outbreak."

He said 54 people linked to the cluster have been moved to a quarantine facility, including 24 of the people who have tested positive.

The seven new cases reported today bring the total number of confirmed cases to 1258.

There are now 25 active cases in New Zealand, all in quarantine.

Two of today's new cases were in managed isolation in Waikato and the third in Canterbury.

The first case is a man in his 30s who arrived in New Zealand on 14 July from Afghanistan flying via Doha, while the other Waikato case is another man in his 30s who arrived on the same day on a fight from Pakistan via Dubai.

Both positive results were from day three tests. The two men - and the family of one of them - have been transferred from Waikato to the Auckland quarantine facility.

Jacinda Ardern has laid out Cabinet's plan this morning for if Covid-19 manages to slip through the border and break out in the community.

Speaking at Parliament, she said if community cases emerged, the government would impose restrictions locally or regionally in the first instance, rather than nationwide.

"Our priority will be to control any cases with the least intrusive measures, and over the smallest area we can," she said.

In a statement, the Ministry said today's case is a woman in her 60s who arrived in New Zealand on 30 June from Pakistan via Doha and Sydney.

She has been in managed isolation at the Novotel in Christchurch, and tested negative at her first test around day 3 of her stay, then tested positive around day 12 of her stay in isolation.

The ministry said the case emphasises why people need to be tested twice during their time in managed isolation.

Hipkins said the 32-year-old man, who arrived from India on 3 July, left his managed isolation last night to go to the Countdown supermarket on Victoria Street in central Auckland.

The man was outside the facility for 70 minutes.

Hipkins said after CCTV footage was viewed and the man was interviewed, the current assessment of the risk to the public was low.

"The person wore a mask although indicated that was removed for short periods of time."

In a statement, Countdown said the supermarket closed for cleaning at 8.15 this morning and will reopen tomorrow.

The new cases are a woman in her 20s and a woman in her 30s, both from the same family, who arrived 2 July from Afghanistan. Both women were staying at the Sudima Hotel in Christchurch.

They each tested positive from the tests taken on day three after arrival, Hipkins said.

It had been 67 days since the last case of local transmission from an unknown source, Hipkins said.

Their joint proposal beat a rival bid from Colombia to host the tournament which is being expanded to 32 teams.

Japan, who had also put forward a bid to stage the event, pulled out on Monday after they were ranked below the joint bid by world governing body FIFA's evaluation report.

The report highlighted the infrastructure and organisational advantages of the Australia/New Zealand bid which FIFA believed would make for a commercially successful tournament.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand was honoured to have been selected as co-hosts.

The first new case was a man in his 20s who flew into the country from India. The second was also a man in his 20s travelling from Los Angeles who tested positive at Jet Park Hotel, which he had been at since arriving in the country after experiencing respiratory symptoms.

"Sometimes the Jet Park facility is used for managed isolation if the other facilities are full. anyway. but all I'm told is there was a mix-up in the airport at the queues and they ended up at Jet Park, that's where they would’ve been transferred upon diagnosis anyway," Dr Bloomfield said.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the first case is a teenage girl who arrived on in New Zealand on 13 June and was travelling with her family, who have tested negative so far.

The teenager has been staying at the Novotel Auckland Airport hotel.

A New Zealander in isolation at the Auckland Airport Novotel yesterday said they were all in lockdown after being told of a new case at the hotel. However, the prime minister's office, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Health all declined to comment ahead of today's media briefing.