Covid 19 coronavirus: Passengers flying from NZ to Cook Islands in quarantine

Two New Zealanders flying into the Cook Islands have gone into quarantine after one was found to have been at an Auckland location visited by a woman who recently contracted Covid-19.

The Covid-19 positive case in the woman, aged in her 20s, has sent health authorities scrambling to identify the source and extent of her infection.

Auckland city centre workers were asked to work from home on Friday, while people living in the same Vincent St Residences complex on Vincent St were also placed into isolation in their apartments and tested.

Health authorities also released a list of all the shops the woman visited while having Covid-19 symptoms and being potentially infectious.

Now one person has reportedly flown to the Cook Islands after visiting one of these locations flagged by health authorities, Newshub reported.

The person along with another was placed into quarantine.

The news came as New Zealand officials were due to arrive in the Cook Islands today as part of ongoing work to investigate a possible travel bubble.

While reluctant to put a time frame on it, this week Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said a bubble could be in place a few weeks after officials had given the green light.

The Cook Islands have had no reported cases of Covid-19 and are anxious for tourism to restart.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said officials would be in the Cook Islands for about a week.

It was unclear what effect today's news would have on plans for the bubble.

The woman in Auckland, meanwhile, reported feeling ill on Monday, got a test on Tuesday but went to work and wore a mask at A-Z Collections on High St following that.

The list of sites she visited while potentially infectious can be seen below.

The full list of sites of interest

Health officials are asking anyone who visited these locations on these dates to get tested, regardless of symptoms.

• Mezze Bar on November 5
• Liquor.Com bottle store, Queen St on November 5
• Red Pig Restaurant on November 7
• Smith and Caughey's Queen St on November 7
• Sunny Town China Taste Restaurant on November 8 and 9
• Starbucks Queen St on November 8 and 9
• The Gateau House on November 8
• A-Z Collections on November 8, 9, 11
• The Vincent Residences, November 7-12
• AUT Student Hub on November 10

Those who visited Auckland City Doctors on November 10 had earlier also been asked to get tested, but a Ministry of Health spokesman said tonight CCTV footage had been reviewed and the infected person was no longer considered to have posed a risk to others during her visit.