Covid-19: Hipkins says risk is low because visitor had one vaccine dose

Preparations are underway for green zone flights from Melbourne from Wednesday, however.

The Covid-19 case that travelled to Wellington from Sydney over the weekend was known to have one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says.

Hipkins said it was too early to tell if there would be alert level changes in the capital. 

He is urging people to continuing using the Covid-19 tracer app. 

The recently confirmed case travelled from Sydney to Wellington and back again over the weekend. 

The person arrived just after midnight on Saturday before flying back to Sydney just after 10am on Monday morning, NSW Health confirmed yesterday evening. They subsequently tested positive in New South Wales.

"We have identified four close contacts here in New Zealand, they are all isolating," Hipkins said, adding they were being interviewed to determine where they had been and who they had been in contact with. 

"While the risk still remains low, having had someone with Covid-19 in Wellington for a 48-hour period does create some additional risk. 

"It's low risk, but not no risk. The person was vaccinated."

He clarified the person had one dose of AstraZeneca vaccine. A person needs two to be fully vaccinated. 

"Vaccination doesn't stop people necessarily getting Covid-19. It does mean they are less likely to have a serious reaction to it and less likely to spread it but in both of those cases you can still get it, you can still have a response and you can still spread it."

The Australian visitors were using the Covid tracer app. 

He said the visit to the pub and the Te Papa exhibition increased the risk. 

Hipkins said he had a conversation with Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield at 5pm last night around pausing the bubble. 

"Neither of us were aware of this case at that point. It would have been in the next few hours after that, somewhere around about 7.30-8pm roughly," Hipkins said that they were made aware of the case. 

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