There is no evidence the person who tested positive for Covid-19 in South Korea after travelling from New Zealand was infected here, Health Minister Chris Hipkins says.
But amid an "abundance of caution", officials were contact-tracing two rows in front of and behind the person, who left New Zealand from Christchurch Airport earlier this month.
Five household contacts of the person are all well but are in self-isolation and will be tested today.
The person is also having their movements traced as a precaution but the risk is considered to be low.
One-hundred-and-seventy contacts have been identified of the South Korean case and "the vast majority" had been spoken to.
The person in South Korea was tested on arrival but there was a delay for their result. By yesterday they still hadn't had a second test but health officials were operating on the basis they'd had a second test and it was positive as a precaution.
Hipkins said there was a variety of scenarios here and were still working out which one was correct but were working on a worst-case basis.
It comes as director general of health Ashley Bloomfield today revealed one new Covid case. The new case is a woman in her 20s who travelled from Afghanistan.
She tested negative on day three but returned a weak positive on day 12 and has moved to a quarantine facility.
More than 1100 tests were processed yesterday, with 872 in the community.
Hipkins said the current testing rates still were not at the Government expected them to be.
He said the Health Ministry was working "very, very hard" to work out where the impediment was for the low numbers.
He called it "frustrating" that the numbers weren't high enough.
"I don't think , in any of this there is a deliberate attempt to suppress testing numbers."
Bloomfield said the influenza rates were about a third of what they were normally which was impacting test results.
Bloomfield said it was good to see the number of people being tested in the community had increased over the last week.
Bloomfield said the introduction of a throat-swab test had increased uptake.
Bloomfield once again urged New Zealanders to download and use the Covid Tracer app.
Keeping isolation facilities safe for staff
Mr Hipkins said there were robust systems in place for staff working across managed isolation facilities to keep them safe.
Mr Hipkins said he'd ordered an independent review rostering and risks which was underway at the moment.
From Saturday DHBs will take over the delivery of health services in border facilities, which are currently being provided by contractors.
Anyone working in a facility will have to adhere to a stand-down period and return a negative test before working elsewhere.
The Health Ministry also said yesterday it was working on rostering guidelines to limit nurses working across multiple sites, as revealed by the Herald last week.
The ministry said it was working through updated advice with the Covid-19 Clinical Governance Group which has oversight of clinical practices, including nursing, within managed isolation and quarantine facilities.
"There are already in place systems and processes at the managed isolation facilities which are robust and sufficient to keep safe the nurses working there, and the individuals they interact with.
