Three more cases in community

Two more community cases of

Covid-19 have been announced. They are siblings of a Papatoetoe High School student confirmed as a positive case yesterday.

The Ministry of Health said the siblings are a teenager and an infant. The teenager, who is a school leaver, works at Kmart Botany in east Auckland.

They were at work on February 19 and 20 between

4pm-10pm.

Thirty-one of their colleagues have been identified as close contacts and are selfisolating, the ministry said. Anyone who visited Kmart Botany at those times is considered a casual plus contact. These are contacts previously considered casual contacts, but have been upgraded due to the risk of the more transmissible strains of the virus. Those affected by the latest outbreak have the contagious UK variant.

The store would be undergoing a deep clean, as was company policy.

A Ministry of Health spokeswoman said she was not sure which of the two cases visited the store. The infant does not go to childcare outside their home, the ministry said.

A testing centre was set up at Papatoetoe High yesterday and 672 tests were done. Testing will be at the school again today.

The pair’s parents and a sibling have returned negative tests, and the family has been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility, Jet Park Hotel. ‘‘The ministry is advising everyone in a Papatoetoe High household [they] must stay away from work or any other school, educational facility or community setting (e.g. the supermarket or any other place outside the home),’’ a statement said. ‘‘The school remains closed and no students or staff will be able to return until advised by a Medical Officer of Health.’’

Household members of students and staff do not need to be retested at this stage, unless they have symptoms, the statement said.