Covid 19 coronavirus: Two more community cases revealed - household members of today's positive case; Kmart staff identified as close contacts

Two new community cases of Covid-19 have been announced Tuesday night.

The two cases are household members of the positive case announced earlier in the day.

"The Ministry of Health was this afternoon notified that two siblings of today's positive case from Papatoetoe High School have also tested positive for Covid-19," the ministry said in a statement.

"The siblings are a teenager and an infant. The parents and a third older sibling have returned negative tests. The family has been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility."

Today's initial case, a Papatoetoe High School student known as Case I, has not been at school. They are a casual plus contact of the initial Papatoetoe High School case and had been advised to self-isolate and get tested.

The teenage sibling, known as Case J, recently finished school and has been working at Kmart Botany, the ministry said.

Case J was at work on Friday February 19 and Saturday February 20 between 4pm and 10pm. Kmart Botany is regarded as a location of interest.

"Therefore anyone who was at Kmart Botany, 500 Ti Rakau Drive, Botany Downs, at these times is considered a casual plus contact.

"If you are a casual plus contact, you are advised to immediately isolate at home and call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice on isolation timeframes and testing requirements.

"Thirty-one staff at Kmart have already been identified as close contacts and are isolating and being provided with public health advice."

In a statement, Kmart said "... the health and safety of our team and customers is our highest priority and we can confirm that we were alerted this afternoon of a team member who has returned a positive result for Covid-19 at the Kmart Botany store.

"As soon as we were made aware, we immediately closed the store as a safety precaution and commenced a thorough sanitisation of the store.

"We have also asked all contacts of this team member to isolate. We are working closely with the New Zealand Department of Health and will continue to take every safety precaution.

"The team member last worked from 4pm to 10pm on February 19 and 20."

Dark Vapes in East Tamaki has also been added to the ministry's locations of interest for the newest case.

People who visited Dark Vapes in East Tamaki on February 19 between 2.30pm and 4pm and February 20 between 7pm and 8.30pm are being considered as casual plus contacts and should stay home and get a test.

Dark Vapes owner Rakibul Howlader said he was the only person in his Springs Road store at the time the infected customer visited both times so was currently isolating.

"I was serving the customer so I have to go into isolation ... it is a bit of a shock but it has been five days already and I'm fine and I haven't got any symptoms or anything."

He had only learnt that his East Tamaki store was a location of interest this afternoon, but would be organising a thorough clean, he said.

Those who visited either Kmart Botany or Dark Vapes on February 19 should get a test tomorrow and those who visited on February 20 should wait until February 25, according to updated information on the MoH website.

Other locations of interest for the three cases are being investigated and will be notified when available.

The ministry said the infant, known as Case K, did not have childcare outside the home.

A testing centre was set up at Papatoetoe High School early this afternoon and 672 tests were done today. Testing will be available again at the school tomorrow.

The school community has been requested to get tested if they had not done so today.

The ministry says everyone in a Papatoetoe High School household must stay away from work or any other school, educational facility or community setting (eg the supermarket or any other place outside the home).

The school remains closed and no students or staff will be able to return until advised by a Medical Officer of Health.

At this point, household members who are not students or staff do not need to be retested, unless they have symptoms or are asked to do so.

"We will be providing updates on contact tracing tomorrow. Whole genome sequencing of Case I will be available tomorrow," the ministry said.

Kmart's Botany store was closed around 5.30pm today for deep cleaning.

Shoppers said a sign was now hanging on the store's door, saying it had been closed for cleaning after a confirmed case of Covid.

One shopper said he and his partner were walking in the store when a staff member stopped them at the door.

"He said: 'You need to get out," he said.

"We looked behind him and staff were putting masks on or had already put masks on."

The shopper said another lady came out of the store just after them. She had been at the checkout but was told to "drop everything and get out now".

The shopper said other shops nearby remained open and didn't appear to be affected.

A second shopper told the Herald he arrived at Kmart Botany about 6pm when staff were leaving.

When he asked one of them what had happened they told him they were closed for deep cleaning.

"I asked if it was Covid and they nodded," the shopper said.

Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield will give more information on the new Covid-19 case in Auckland. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A schoolgirl was earlier today identified as a so-called casual plus contact - a person who has visited a location of interest at the same time as a person who had since tested positive for Covid-19 - of the February community outbreak.

The girl had not yet returned to school however, and was instead isolating at home, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said.

The student lives in a house with six people, including one family member, who also goes to Papatoetoe High School.

That sibling has not been back to school either.

Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says the girl's family are now being tested but only she is symptomatic at the moment.

All students at Papatoetoe High School had been asked to be tested after the outbreak was discovered on February 14.

However the schoolgirl had not yet been tested and Bloomfield said Public Health teams had made "a lot" of attempts to contact her family.

The student had some symptoms and reported a loss of smell and taste yesterday.

She was tested at a community testing station.

Bloomfield said the Ministry of Health "simply does not have" any information about whether the student was adhering to self-isolation rules.

He said that information will be confirmed soon, after interviews with the family.

"It's important that we let this investigation take its course," Hipkins said.

Papatoetoe High School principal Vaughan Couillault said all students and teachers are being re-tested immediately, with four stations in the hall testing people already.

"There's a huge squad that turned up in about 45 minutes and we're rolling.

"At this point we are starting with senior students and working our way down because of the nature of the positive case and the interviews."

He said the idea is to test as many students as they can today, because they're already there.

"It only takes a few minutes and there's a few testing stations so they're really trying to crank through as much as they can," Couillault said.

Couillault said people were "disappointed" and "frustrated" they were going through this again.

"But I'm very confident that everybody will revert back and get the job done like they did last time."

In the meantime the school would close this evening until further notice, a post on the school's Facebook page said.

Students and staff who got tested before Monday February 22 were being asked to get tested again and everyone linked to the school community including family members of staff and students must isolate until all the students or staff members in their household had a negative test result.

Hipkins said the "vast bulk" of students at Papatoetoe High school had been tested after the Valentine's Day outbreak, but there were seven people still to return a negative test, including the Covid-19 positive student announced today.

All of these students are "being followed up".

"We want to find them all, and test them," Bloomfield said.

He said from some of the families, there have been up to 12 phone calls to get them to be tested.

Sometimes, there is a language barrier, Bloomfield said.

"It just takes some time to get hold of someone," Hipkins said.

He said in his experience, the last handful of people take the longest.

"The tail is being chased up now," Bloomfield said.

But overwhelmingly, New Zealanders are "trying to do the right thing", Hipkins said.

He called on people to not pass judgment on people who are taking a little bit longer to get a test.

Bloomfield said he does not think the case announced earlier today is from a new strain. Rather, it's highly likely to be linked to the Valentines Day cluster.

Papatoetoe High School's website says it has 1500 students and more than 150 teaching and non-teaching staff.

There are 27 locations of interest connected to the latest outbreak in the Papatoetoe area and 1416 casual plus contacts identified.

Of those contacts, 1402 had returned negative tests and yesterday the Ministry of Health said there were 13 results outstanding.

Bloomfield said wastewater testing has shown negative results in the Papatoetoe area and there have been 70,000 tests, which show there is no community transmission.

The official advice for anyone who has been identified as a casual plus contact is advised to stay home, get a test and to call Healthline.

So far the Auckland cluster has involved two family groups.

The first cases, a mum and teenage daughter, tested positive on February 13. A day later the father tested positive.

The second family at the heart of the cluster involved a classmate of the teenage girl from the first family. She tested positive on February 16 went on to infect her older brother, also a high school pupil, and her mum and dad. Another teenage girl in the family tested positive on February 21.

Mystery still surrounds the cause of the outbreak.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said Kmart's Albany store was closed for cleaning. This was incorrect. The store was in Botany. We apologise for the error.