The government is temporarily toughening up managed isolation rules in the wake of a growing number of community Covid-19 cases.
Three people are now confirmed to have caught the more contagious South African strain of the virus from a fellow returnee in managed isolation.
A Northland woman, a father and his young daughter were allowed to leave the Pullman Hotel after initially returning negative tests.
Swipe card data shows the so-called index case and the three returnees were out of their rooms at the same time on several occasions, but the exact means of transmission is not yet known.
The Pullman Hotel is not taking on any more returnees until officials find out what's gone wrong. Once the hotel is eventually empty, it will be deep-cleaned. In the meantime, across all MIQ facilities, all returnees will be confined to their rooms for the final three days of isolation to avoid any cross-contamination.
And on Thursday afternoon, Australia's acting Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd has hit pause again on the trans-Tasman travel bubble, until at least Sunday.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told Lisa Owen how the three infected people might have come in contact when they were out of their rooms.
