The government has confirmed it will no longer allow travellers from India into the country, until further notice.
This comes after health officials confirmed today that a border worker has tested positive for Covid-19 at a managed isolation facility in Auckland.
Aotearoa will impose restrictions on flights arriving from India at 4pm on April 11. The suspension will be in place until April 28.
The Ministry of Health has confirmed 23 positive Covid-19 cases in managed isolation. Seventeen of them had travelled from India.
The 24-year-old worker at the Grand Millenium managed isolation hotel had not yet been vaccinated and, after a test on Tuesday, his result came back positive today. An urgent repeat test is now underway to provide a clear understanding of the person’s infection.
The worker lives alone but commutes with a colleague. The colleague is also getting tested today and is now self-isolating. The colleague has, however, been vaccinated.
23 in hotels
Health Director-General Ashley Bloomfield says there are no locations of interest so far.
"Auckland Regional Public Health officials have this morning carried out scoping interviews with the case to determine any potential locations of interest," he says.
Bloomfield says if and when locations of interest are identified, the Ministry of Justice will notify those locations and put them up on the ministry website.
India has the third-highest number of cases in the world, behind the US and Brazil.
About half of the Indian cases in the state of Maharashta, of which Mumbai is the capital, so there's a “very active outbreak there,” Bloomfield says.
Many cases experience the onset of symptoms pre- or during travel to New Zealand, he says.
The total number of active cases is 95.