Three police officers are in self-isolation after being spat on last night by a member of the public.
NZ Police Association President Chris Cahill said the person spat in their faces while being arrested about 10pm in the Auckland policing district of Waitematā.
He added the person has shown symptoms of Covid-19.
They were arrested and kept in police custody until this morning. Bail has been opposed.
"The real challenge for police is when people get violent or when officers have to interact with people immediately and don't have the time to put protective equipment on, and that's very concerning," Cahill said.
It comes after a Bay of Plenty supermarket worker was spat on after a confrontation with a customer refusing to abide to new Covid-19 restrictions.
The incident happened at Pak'n Save Whakatāne over the weekend, Foodstuffs NZ confirmed.
A butchery worker was spat on after the customer refused to stand behind the line at the butchery counter, Foodstuffs NZ's head of corporate affairs Antoinette Laird said.
Laird told NZME said this sort of behaviour was not tolerated at all and the offender was escorted off their premises as a result.
"Over the past few weeks we have implemented additional measures to ensure the safety of our staff, which include physical distancing in-store and it is completely unacceptable to treat our hard-working team this way."
New Zealand Police have been approached for comment on the number of spitting incidents in the region over the last few days.
Last week, supermarkets nationwide introduced a range of safety measures as a way of protecting staff and customers amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the nation's alert level 4 status.
These measures included limiting the number of people inside at once, perpex screens at checkouts, hand sanitisation at the doors and masks for staff among other things.
There were also physical distancing guides at a number of stores too.
