'Loose' Covid contact: Rotorua Lakes Council reopens after deep clean

Rotorua Lakes Council is closed today for a precautionary deep clean. Photo / NZME

Rotorua Lakes Council reopened at 8am this morning following its closure yesterday for a Covid-19 related deep clean.

The council said in a statement yesterday the deep clean was undertaken as a precautionary measure following advice that a staff member was deemed a 'loose' contact in relation to a confirmed case of Covid-19.

"While this is deemed a very low risk, the decision was made to close the building to enable a deep clean to be undertaken."

"Given our duty of care to both staff and the public, we are acting with an abundance of caution to mitigate any risk," the council's chief executive Geoff Williams said.

"Staff will work from home and the building will undergo a deep clean today. We expect we should be able to re-open tomorrow."

Rotorua Lakes Council is closed today for a precautionary deep clean. Photo / NZME

The statement said, under alert level 2, staff had been managing numbers in the Civic Centre so not all staff have been working from the office and the public had had direct access to only the Customer Centre, with processes in place to escort people needing to access other areas.

The council's Director People and Organisational Development Joe Akari said the term 'loose' was used to indicate the very low level of risk.

"The staff member does not meet Covid 'contact' definitions but has had a test and is self-isolating while awaiting the result, both as a precaution.

"No other staff are required to self-isolate," Akari said.

Health officials announced on Sunday there were two new community cases in Hamilton and Raglan plunging parts of the Waikato back into Alert Level 3 last night.

The pair are known to each other.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern this morning confirmed that additional cases had been confirmed in Raglan overnight - said to be household contacts of one of two new Waikato-based people who tested positive for Covid.