9 Nov 2020

Defence Force staff sent home after Covid-19 visit

From Morning Report, 6:49 am on 9 November 2020

The Ministry of Health will reveal how serious a new group of Covid-19 infections is today.

Nicknamed the "November quarantine cluster", it started when a quarantine worker at Auckland's Jet Park facility tested positive for the virus on Friday.

A second Defence Force employee who visited Auckland and then flew back to Wellington tested positive on Saturday - the capital's first community case in months.

Vice Chief of Defence Force Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies told Morning Report deputy editor Kim Griggs on Sunday the latest person with Covid-19 had visited the Defence Force's headquarters in central Wellington - and now all 1300 staff must work from home.

The Ministry of Health has since confirmed that the person who travelled to Wellington visited a number of public venues before returning a positive test.

The person visited Avis car rental, Orleans Chicken & Waffles, The Gypsy Moth and Hudsons while at Auckland Airport on Thursday between 5.30pm and 7.45pm.

While in Wellington, they visited Little Penang on The Terrace between 1.15pm and 3.45pm on Friday.