There are no new Covid-19 cases in the community and five at the border, Dr Ashley Bloomfield has confirmed.
The Director-General of Health said two of the five cases at the border were the infected mariners announced yesterday.
They are currently isolating on a vessel off the coast of Taranaki.
The pair are part of a group of nine who arrived in Auckland on Monday before being transferred onto a deep sea fishing vessel in New Plymouth.
Bloomfield said today the mariners' three close contacts — the minibus driver who drove them to New Plymouth, a port pilot and Customs officer — were fully vaccinated.
All were wearing appropriate PPE, he said.
The minibus driver was now in isolation in an MIQ facility in Auckland, while the port pilot and Customs officer were self-isolating and would be tested today.
When asked, Bloomfield said there was one scheduled stop — for the toilet — at a "dedicated facility" in Hamilton which is not open to the public and is deep cleaned between any groups which use it.
In a statement, the Ministry of Health explained the infected mariners had arrived onboard a 'red flight' —where everyone on the flight is in MIQ for 14 days — and said everyone else on it had tested negative.
They would continue to have Day 5 and Day 12 tests.
The remaining seven mariners had returned negative results.
Urgent whole genome sequencing is underway to determine the variant the two infected mariners have.
On the three other border-related cases, the ministry said they had arrived from the UK, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.
The case from the UK was being investigated by the ministry, ESR and Auckland's public health unit as they had tested positive after Day 3.
New Zealand's total number of active cases is 40, while the total number of confirmed cases to date is 2407.
One previously reported case has recovered.
Yesterday, there was one case detected at the border.



















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