Wellington's community leaders are urging testing and vaccinations as three local Covid cases are unearthed and seven potential exposure sites listed.
On Friday, the Government confirmed three cases from Auckland's delta outbreak had travelled to Wellington before lockdown, one to Johnsonville and two others to the suburb of Miramar.
There had since been seven locations of interest listed in the Wellington region, including a restaurant, a pharmacy, a supermarket and a flight from Auckland.
Ōhāriu MP Greg O'Connor said the locations of interest in Johnsonville were well-known and frequented.
"Johnsonville is quite a unique community and we can see by the locations of interest that everything is centred around the shopping centre," he said.
"For instance, the person visited the Countdown, the sushi bar, 1841, these are all iconic places in Johnsonville, so most people can relate even if they weren't in those places."
Queues stretched down Taranaki St on Friday as Wellingtonians waited to get tested. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Flight NZ 445 from Auckland to Wellington at 5pm on Sunday August 15 was also listed as a location of interest, but the airport was unable to confirm whether or not they were a location of interest.
A spokesperson said they were still waiting on advice from Regional Public Health.
"We are on standby to support Regional Public Health as required and to help alert passengers and staff if health officials determine they are possible contacts of a Covid-19 case," they said.
"For the known flight that was a location of interest we have done a preliminary review and determined no Wellington Airport employers were involved in handling the flight or in the relevant terminal area at the time."
"We are deep cleaning several times a day as is our usual practice."
The 1841 bar and restaurant in Johnsonville was listed as a location of interest, between the hours of 7pm and 9pm on Tuesday.
In an update on its Facebook page the business said it had alerted all staff who had worked that night as well as customers, who had been advised to get tested and isolate.
O'Connor said the people of Johnsonville now understood the virus was in their community, adding another urgency to the lockdown.
"I think everyone in Ōhāriu has been watching this virus spread around the world, deep down knowing it was only a matter of time here.
Wellingtonians wait in their cars to get tested after news of positive cases in the region. Photo / Mark Mitchell
"And I detect almost a bit of relief here now that we can finally fight back, that now we have an opportunity to do what we had perceived that others haven't done and get rid of this thing."
Porirua resident and former mayor Nick Leggett said his community was rallying and looking out for each other after the news of positive cases in the Wellington region.
He said there had been high numbers of testing and vaccinations locally after news of the outbreak.
Testing numbers for Capital and Coast and Hutt Valley DHBs were yet to be released, but Wellington Central MP and Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson confirmed there had been more than 40,000 nationwide on Friday.
"The testing has really ramped up in the last few days and it's taken this outbreak to do that, so that's actually a positive thing," he said.
"For the longer term, there were a lot of vaccinations in the Porirua and Wellington area yesterday and that's exciting to see."
"That's exactly what we want to see and we want to encourage as many people as possible to go out and get that vaccination."
Covid feeling very close to home tonight. Looks like the testing centres in Wellington will be busy tomorrow. Grateful for the swift action with this latest outbreak. Kia kaha and wear your face masks people. https://t.co/fLutfTy3D3
Wellington city councillor and Johnsonville resident Jill Day said there were more vaccine appointments available locally and encouraged people to take advantage of them in light of the outbreak.
"It's a timely reminder of how this virus works and we do need to really make sure we take all the precautions we can," she said.
