A staff member at Countdown Westgate has tested positive for Covid-19 under Alert Level 4.
The Ministry of Health listed the supermarket as a location of interest at 10.00am Thursday 19 August, confirming to 1NEWS the staffer was infectious while at work.
"As whole genome sequencing is underway, the link to the cluster is still under investigation," a spokesperson said.
The first time the infected person was in the store was on August 16 between 5.00m - 6.00pm.
The second and third times were on August 19 from 6.00am -2.00pm and August 21 between 6.00am and 11.30am. The store, which was due to open at 10.00am on Thursday is closed.
At Thursday's 1.00pm press conference, Jacinda Ardern said the worker was infected through being part of a cluster within the outbreak rather than being infected "at their place of work through someone else".
A spokesperson from Countdown told 1 NEWS it couldn't comment due to privacy reasons. The supermarket giant's press release Thursday morning said "2100 of our team members are isolating across New Zealand".
"There are several reasons for this, including they don’t have childcare available or are vulnerable to Covid-19. In Auckland and Wellington, team are isolating due to their store being a location of interest or due to the fact they have a household member who has been impacted by a location of interest," said Kiri Hannifin, Countdown’s general manager corporate affairs, safety and sustainability.
"Nineteen of our stores have been visited by someone who has tested positive for Covid-19, and we have eight stores temporarily closed due to low team numbers and ensuring we have team members across as many other stores as we can.
"These stores are Albert Street Metro, Birkenhead, Halsey Street Metro, Hauraki Corner, Mangere Mall, Westgate, and Takanini."
SHARE ME