Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says he's very disappointed the British DJ at the centre of an Omicron community scare didn't follow isolation rules.
The Ministry of Health confirmed yesterday the recent international arrival completed 10 days of isolation, but did not wait for the final test result before going out into the community, and subsequently tested positive for the Omicron variant.
Last night, DJ Dimension outed himself in a social media post as New Zealand's first community Omicron case. The DJ, Robert Etheridge, had been scheduled to perform at the Rhythm and Alps festival in Wanaka.
He had visited a number of Auckland CBD locations on 26 and 27 December, including the Impala nightclub on Shortland Street, the Sunny town restaurant, Partridge jewellers, Ahi Restaurant and Soul Bar.
"The exact number of contacts is still being confirmed and identified," Hipkins said.
He said his message to the DJ was that rules were there for a reason.
"We don't have Omicron circulating in the community and we want to keep it that way for as long as we can."
The DJ was meant to be in MIQ for seven days, and then three days in another facility, wait until he received a negative test result came back, and keep to his bubble, Hipkins confirmed.
"That hasn't been the case here and that's disappointing."
He told media this morning Etheridge had been to Waiheke Island, where he visited had drinks with people on a beach. Those at the beach have been told to self-isolate.
"We do understand through social media that the case visited the beach and had drinks with their neighbours whilst they were on Waiheke."
Three people that the DJ stayed with on the island had returned negative test results for the virus so far.
There were four positive cases in MIQ at the same time as Etheridge, three of those cases had been ruled out as being linked to his infection. Genome sequencing results have yet to come back for the fourth individual.
Fourteen people who dined at Soul restaurant are now considered close contacts. Eight of those people remain in Auckland, while six flew to Christchurch. They have so far tested negative for the virus and are isolating.
The six contacts who travelled Christchurch performed at the Hidden Lakes festival last night. They tested negative via saliva testing before flying on chartered flight and also tested negative before the concert.
The Canterbury public health unit is following up with them.
Staff at the restaurant are also considered contacts and are being asked to monitor for symptoms.
"We knew Omicron would come here, but we ask people to be very careful," Hipkins said.
People may feel they are over Covid-19 as they enjoy summer, "but it's clear Covid is not finished with us", he said.
There were 47 people at the Impala nightclub and probably about 100 contacts all up, Hipkins said.
He said the case had posed a "very low risk" to those sitting in other parts of the restaurant while the positive person was there.
Contact trackers had a full list of those in attendance to have was understood to be a private event.
"My message to them is that they should be isolating and get tested," he said.
There was one close contact who tested negative for Covid-19 at the hotel the DJ had booked into.
The news came as Auckland prepared to move from the red to the orange setting under the Covid-19 Protection Framework.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on 13 December that Auckland and all other red regions, except Northland, would move to the orange setting at 11.59pm tonight.
"At this case there is no case to reconsider any change to the Auckland boundary or Auckland's move from red to orange in the traffic light settings," Hipkins said.
"I know Aucklanders are looking forward to this, that's still going to happen. Nothing that we've seen here suggests that should be revised.
"I don't want to overreact to this."
The Omicron case arrived into the country just before stricter rules were to come into effect in light of the new variant, the minister said. These include a requirement of 10 days of full MIQ, and a negative result within 48 hours instead of 72.
"This case came in right on the cusp of the changes," Hipkins said.
The minister confirmed vaccine booster doses would be rolled out early in January. "I know some Auckland places are doing booster doses already," he said.
Asked why the booster programme was not being brought forward, he said the last thing he wanted was to get tired staff performing vaccinations because "that's when you get mistakes".
Most vaccination clinics had scaled back their services for the holiday period.
Covid-19 Testing is available on Waiheke Island and more testing facilities will be made available in Auckland.
