Northland braces amid covid scare

Two covid-19 cases were confirmed in Northland yesterday, after positive test results were recorded by the Northland District Health Board.

There is a possible third case at Parua Bay in Whangarei.

“Locations of interest are currently being determined but whanau between Kaikohe and Kaitaia are being urged to get tested,” the DHB said

Ngati Hine Health Trust CEO Geoff Milner reiterated the urgency for Maori to get vaccinated.

“We’ve had the calm before the storm, the door has now opened — and it’s here. Ngati Hine Health Trust will be working hard to play its part, but we need everybody on board to minimise the hits ... it’s not too late for our whanau to get vaccinated now.”

The two new cases follows a Whangarei Heads tavern confirming an employee’s family member had tested positive.

A post on the Parua Bay Tavern Facebook page confirmed they had received information about the worker’s family member returning a positive result.

It has not been confirmed whether the family member is based in Northland and the Parua Bay Tavern has not been added as a location of interest to the Ministry of Health’s website.

The post continued, stating that all staff were isolating and undergoing covid tests.

“I can’t give any more information at this time until we get our results.”

The scare comes three days after the region took a step closer to normality following a snap lockdown on October 8.

Northland only entered alert level 2 on Tuesday at 11.59pm after everyone was taken by surprise on October 8 when the Government announced the region would enter alert level 3 that same evening.

It came after two female travellers crossed the border from Auckland, allegedly using falsified documents, and toured the region during which one of the women returned a positive covid test while in Whangarei.