National's Chris Bishop had written representations for the women. Photo / File

The two sisters released from border facilities early to visit their dying parent were released after positive representations from the National MP for Hutt South, Health Minister David Clark has revealed in the House.

He was asked by Labour MP Chris Hipkins whether National's Chris Bishop had written representations for the women, to which Clark replied: "Yes I am aware of that".

It was revealed on Tuesday that two sisters who later tested positive for the virus were allowed to leave managed isolation in Auckland to travel to Wellington after their mother had died.

After interviews with contact-tracing staff, more than 300 close contacts of the pair have been identified and will be tested, including other people in the hotel in which they had been isolating and other passengers and crew on their flight from Brisbane.

New Zealand now has 1157 confirmed cases of Covid-19 - 1507 in total, including probable cases.