Westpac employee tests positive

AUCKLAND: Westpac has confirmed a staff member at its head office has tested positive for Covid19, and employees are being asked to monitor their health.

The bank spokesman said the employee, who did not usually come into contact with customers, contracted it from a close contact.

‘‘As soon as they became aware a member of their household had contact with a Covid19 case, the employee selfisolated. The selfisolation started last Friday evening and official advice is that the staff member would not have become infectious until Tuesday week.’’

However, as a precaution, the bank was deepcleaning the workspace and floor where the staff member worked, the spokesman said.

Other standard Covid19 pro

of

this cedures, including asking the employee’s colleagues to monitor their health, had been instituted.

‘‘We’re in frequent contact with this employee and are offering full support,’’ the spokesman said.

Nine new cases — eight in managed isolation and one household contact of one of the marine employee cluster cases — were reported in New Zealand yesterday, directorgeneral of health Ashley Bloomfield said.

The Ministry of Health confirmed the Westpac case was included in yesterday’s new

Covid19 case numbers.

Snap Fitness general manager Brendan Hurrell said Auckland Regional Public Health had yesterday afternoon informed him all 10 close contacts from the Browns Bay gym’s boot camp had been traced, tested and were isolating.

He said his manager’s test results had returned negative, which he said was a ‘‘positive start’’.

Mr Hurrell said they had decided to push back reopening the branch until tomorrow morning to make sure there were no new developments in the next 24 hours that would affect the business or its members.

‘‘We just thought we’d be safe,’’ he said.

Malt owner Kevin McVicar said all of his staff had also tested negative but they would need to complete their isolation period given they were considered close contacts of the patron who visited last Friday.

There are 1923 confirmed cases, and 66 active cases.

New Zealand’s labs completed 6053 tests on Thursday. — The New Zealand Herald