A health expert has expressed concern at Rotorua's unvaccinated levels after a person who caught a flight from the airport later tested positive for Covid-19.
Meanwhile, the chairman of Rotorua Airport is "confident" it has done everything to keep people safe.
Rotorua Airport was added as a location of interest over the weekend after a person who flew to Blenheim via Wellington tested positive for the virus. The person is unvaccinated.
The case was on Flight NZ8231 Rotorua to Wellington on Thursday and was believed to be linked to the Te Awamutu cluster.
Those at the airport between 4pm and 5pm on Wednesday, October 20, and between 6.30am and 7.15am on Thursday, October 21, are asked to self-monitor for symptoms for 14 days if at the location at these times. If symptoms develop they should get tested and stay home until a negative test result and 24 hours after symptoms resolve.
The transmission risk to the public appeared low.
A Ministry of Health spokesman said that the person was at the airport on both Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.
He said the individual did not travel directly from Te Awamutu and the majority of the individual's small network of close contacts are in Waikato. Rotorua Airport chairman Peter Stubbs said it was "disappointing" to hear about the case.
Stubbs said the airport had strict cleaning protocols and was cleaned daily which meant the airport had had two big cleans before the news broke.
"We're pretty confident, from our perspective, we've done everything we should've been doing. I think the risks are incredibly low."
Stubbs was not aware of any staff being asked to self-isolate.
He said staff vaccination rates were in the high 90 per cents and staff were separated "as much as possible" from passengers.
"Our people have done a great job of protecting themselves on an ongoing basis, not only by double vaccination but also protocols they follow in cleaning, PPE and distancing.
"We're very lucky people take this very seriously. We realise the right to travel is important."
Stubbs said the airport was not worried because they had put a "huge" effort into safety protocols and efforts. He hoped people would not fear going through the airport.
University of Waikato professor of population health Ross Lawrenson said a key concern was the virus had been affecting the unvaccinated, as had been the case in Auckland.
"We have the same risk in Rotorua with the high proportion of unvaccinated."
Any case like this raised the possibility of transmission, however, the case appeared to be low-risk according to messaging from the ministry, he said
As of 11.59 on Saturday, 79 per cent of the Lakes District Health Board had their first vaccine dose and 61 per cent had their second.
Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick thought it was "concerning" on the backdrop of the city's vaccination rates.
"We need to keep on the great drive to get the vaccination numbers up with a targetted approach."
She said it was a reminder of the importance of masks and scanning.
A Rotorua woman, who spoke on the condition they were not named, was on the same flight as the infectious person with her grandson.
"We flew down, everything was fine. There was no food or drink served on the plane so we kept our masks on. Obviously, we didn't know that we were on the same plane," she said.
"We've been following all the rules so I don't think we were at risk."
The woman called Healthline after hearing about the case who told her she was low risk and didn't need to be tested, but she got tested anyway "just to be sure".
The results are due back tomorrowand neither she nor her grandson had symptoms.
"But it has thrown a bit a spanner in the works for us down here. We were going out for dinner tonight but now we've decided to stay at home and cook just to be safe."
An Air New Zealand spokesman did not say how many people were on the flights with the person who tested positive.
The flights were NZ8231 Rotorua to Wellington and NZ8725 Wellington to Blenheim on Thursday last week. Any passengers on board the flights were advised to follow the Ministry of Health's Covid-19 guidelines.
The Air NZ spokesman said there were "very stringent" protocols in place to protect customers and employees including deep cleaning of aircraft, and PPE for flight crew.
"We, along with our medical team and the Ministry of Health, review these regularly to ensure our procedures are best practice."
The Ministry said the current public health assessment was that the risk appeared low given the individual's likely late stage of infection.
"The individual flew from Rotorua and arrived in Blenheim on [Thursday]. The individual sought a test upon arrival after developing a sore throat. The initial test, including a follow-up swab, returned a weak positive result.
"Initial case interviews suggest the case is linked to the Te Awamutu cluster and has a small number of close contacts in Waikato. These people have been contacted and are currently isolating with tests arranged.
"Interviews are also being undertaken to determine any locations of interest."
Toi Te Ora Medical Officer of Health Dr Jim Miller said the case was a timely reminder that Covid-19 isn't far away.
"Covid-19 can be a very serious illness and it is quite clear that it is largely a disease of the unvaccinated. By getting vaccinated and encouraging those around you to get vaccinated too, you will protect yourself, your whānau and your community."
Lakes District Health Board Covid-19 incident controller Gary Lees said the Rotorua Community Testing Centre tested 79 people on Sunday which was similar to usual testing on a daily basis.
On Saturday, 939 vaccinations were given across all sites in the health board region which was not an increase from other recent days.
Lees said it was ready to add additional testing capacity should this be required.
The Ministry was continuing to undertake interviews with the person who travelled to Blenheim, it said in a statement yesterday.Two Blenheim-based household contacts had returned negative results and were in isolation. Those people in the Waikato connected to the case have been contacted and were isolated with tests arranged.
• The Ministry of Health reported 80 new community cases of Covid-19 on Sunday afternoon;
• As of 10am yesterday, 34 of the cases were linked and 46 were unlinked. Investigations were under way to determine their connection to the outbreak;
• Seventy-seven of yesterday's cases were in Auckland, two in Waikato and one in Northland;
• There were 50 people with Covid-19 in hospital, with the average age of hospitalisations being 44. Four people were in ICU or HDU;
• As of 10am Sunday, there were 372 locations of interest related to the current outbreak;
• On Saturday, 11,777 first vaccine doses were administered in New Zealand and 30,705 second doses.
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