An employee of a retailer at St Lukes mall in Auckland worked for a number of days while infectious with Covid-19, the Auckland District Health Board says.
In a statement released today, ADHB said despite this, there "has been very limited public exposure because of Alert Level 3".
"There is a very small possibility that members of the public may have been exposed to the virus from 10.30 to noon on Wednesday 12 August, before the majority of shops closed for Alert Level 3. This person visited the Countdown for ten minutes at around 11.15 am on this morning," the statement read.
"While the employee was also in the Centre during Level 3 on the afternoon of August 12, and on August 14, 15 and 17, there was no interaction with the public."
ADHB say the employee’s close contacts have also been identified and are in self-isolation.
Today, the Director General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, said the positive case is now being reinvestigated after originally being classified in the current Auckland cluster.
He said of the 80 cases in the community, 78 are linked to the one Auckland cluster and two remain under investigation.
"The first one is the maintenance worker from the Rydges Hotel facility.
"And there is one case announced yesterday, which was initially thought to be linked to the cluster but has now been reclassified as under investigation with a link still to be firmly established.
"Based on information received this morning, this latter person was in the St Lukes mall on the morning of Wednesday 12 August," Dr Bloomfield said.
He said anyone who had been at the mall on the morning of 12th August should be "alert to symptoms and contact their GP or Healthline should they become symptomatic or have health concerns".
Yesterday, Countdown Supermarket in St Lukes closed for deep cleaning after being advised by the Auckland Regional Health Board that a person with Covid-19 had shopped there.
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