A parent of a baby in Auckland City Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit has tested positive for Covid-19.
Currently, movements in and out of the NICU have been restricted and all Auckland DHB staff are being tested alongside babies and their families.
Babies who are in the unit and those who have recently been discharged are being closely monitored. The DHB's initial investigations suggest the risk to babies in the unit is low.
Health officials are currently working to identify patients and staff who are considered to be contacts.
Plans are in place to manage staff levels until it is safe for everyone to return to work.
Some expecting mothers may be moved to other maternity units if their baby is likely to need NICU care.
Earlier, is was announced parts of Waikato would move to alert level 3 restrictions from 11:59pm tonight after the confirmation of two Covid-19 cases in the region.
There are 33 new community cases of Covid to report in New Zealand today, the majority in Auckland.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the alert-level elevation at a hastily arranged 1pm news conference today with Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield following the discovery of the two Waikato cases - in Raglan and Hamilton East.
These cases are connected to each other, but there was no obvious link between these and the Delta outbreak in neighbouring region Auckland. Further investigation including genome sequencing would help work out the link, Bloomfield said.
Ardern said alert level 3 would be imposed from 11.59pm in Raglan, Te Kauwhata, Ngaruawahia, Hamilton city and Huntly and this would be reviewed in five days.
Auckland's boundary will remain in place. The region has been in lockdown for the past seven weeks due to the Delta outbreak.
Hamilton will have spot checks around the boundary areas but it won't be like Auckland's hard boundary - for practical reasons. There were too many feeder roads into the Hamilton area, she said.
The Prime Minister asked people to comply with the restrictions and work from home if they can.
The level 3 restrictions would apply for an initial five days while wide contact tracing, testing and wastewater testing takes place. Anyone with symptoms should get tested.
A further decision will be made in five days' time. Ardern noted that recent wastewater testing had come back negative.
Cabinet would meet tomorrow to decide the future of level 3 but experts such as University of Otago epidemiologist Michael Baker say it's unlikely Auckland can move out of the level this week, based on the Waikato cases.
Ardern said Monday's announcements around Auckland would not apply to Hamilton as they were separate outbreaks.
• New public exposure events could be listed on the Ministry of Health's website today.
PM: Please get vaccinated if you want to avoid level 3
"It is not a coincidence that those in our current outbreak have not been vaccinated," Ardern said. Unvaccinated people were in the minority but were the vast majority of cases - "because the vaccine works."
Ardern said the Covid vaccine kept people safe and gave us choices. A 90% vaccination rate in Hamilton or Raglan would have made it "highly unlikely" that level 3 would have been announced today.
"The people of Auckland are sacrificing a lot...to give everyone else time to be vaccinated. Please get vaccinated today if you want to avoid level 3 in your community."
She understood people were nervous about the jab, but assured them it was safe. The nurses were friendly and could answer any questions.
There were still 887,000 eligible people who had not been vaccinated.
"We have a different approach to Covid within our sights."
People were looking ahead to summer and their plans - the vaccine was what would make summer plans possible, she said.
There are 1500 vaccination bookings today and 2800 tomorrow in the Waikato. A number of walk-in centres were also open today.
Truck driver case
On Saturday night, the Ministry of Health announced that an Auckland-based truck driver who had travelled from Auckland to Palmerston North had tested positive for Covid-19.
The case was identified in a routine surveillance test done in Auckland and they are now isolating at a facility on hospital grounds in Palmerston North, Bloomfield said.
Most locations of interest are petrol stations and genome sequencing is under way to work out the link with the Auckland outbreak.
The truck driver in Palmerston North, the Raglan case and the Hamilton case were unvaccinated. The truck driver's household members are vaccinated - they haven't tested positive yet.
Bloomfield said some of today and yesterday's positive cases were from the subclusters connected to transitional and emergency housing.
The Palmerston North case was different because the source was known as they came from Auckland - undetected community spread was not a concern there, Bloomfield said.
It was harder to define the edges of the Hamilton outbreak because the source was not known.
None had been discovered through the surveillance testing of other housing locations - they all came from accommodation where cases were already known about.
19 cases unlinked
Fifteen of today's cases are yet to be linked, and four of yesterday's cases remain unlinked.
Twenty-six people are in hospital, 25 in Auckland and one in Hamilton. Three people are in ICU. Today's cases brings the confirmed number of cases to 1328.
The Ministry of Health said the Raglan case is self-isolating and will be moved to a quarantine facility. They were tested on October 1 after feeling unwell and their infectious period is determined to be from September 27.
This person has three household contacts who are also isolating.
The second case is a known contact of the Raglan case and was also tested after becoming unwell.
They were transferred to Waikato Hospital where they are being treated for Covid-19-related symptoms and their household contacts are self-isolating.
The Ministry said there will be a pop-up testing centre at the Raglan Rugby Grounds car park on Cross St this afternoon and anyone in the area who has symptoms is urged to please get a test today.
Additional capacity has been added to the testing centre at the Founders Theatre car park in central Hamilton and a pop-up centre at the Claudelands Event Centre will also be set up.
Walk-in vaccinations are available in Hamilton today at the super-site at Te Awa - The Base, as well as other sites around the city.
- NZ Herald and ODT Online
