The Ministry of Health says it's aware of a "number of cases" who attended a festival in Hamilton over the weekend.
Rumours have been swirling on social media, with one person telling The Project she tested positive after attending the Soundsplash festival and several others saying they are waiting to see if they too are positive.
"Waiting to see if I'm sick from the dust or if I got COVID," one posted to TikTok, along with the Soundsplash hashtag.
On Wednesday night the Ministry of Health confirmed it has been "made aware of a number of cases" who had attended a festival in Hamilton.
"Public Health officials are currently assessing the exposure and expect to publish a location of interest early tomorrow, which will include health advice for those who were there," a spokesperson says.
But Soundsplash told Newshub on Wednesday - just before the Ministry of Health release - that it hasn't had any contact from the ministry yet.
"At this stage, nobody from the Ministry of Health has contacted us to let us know that we are a location of interest or that there were positive COVID cases at our event," a spokesperson said.
"We expect they will let us know if these reports are true but for now we have not heard anything."
This year the annual three-day Soundsplash festival was held at Mystery Creek near Hamilton, with the line-up including Netsky, Broods, and Hollie Smith.
Thousands of teenagers and young adults normally attend, with photos from the event showing masses of maskless youths.
One Soundsplash festival attendee who tested positive for COVID-19 after the event says it was an "ideal breeding ground" for the virus to spread.
"I started feeling a little not good on the Sunday when I left [the festival], but I thought that was just because of all the dust we'd all inhaled at Soundsplash," festivalgoer Emma told The Project on Wednesday night.
"I felt good on the Monday and then on Tuesday I felt like I'd been hit by a truck and I just felt absolutely horrible."
Emma, who is fully vaccinated, says the Ministry of Health is speculating she caught COVID-19 at Soundsplash, given it was a three-day event ending on Sunday and she started showing symptoms on Tuesday.
She also says "a lot" of people she knows who also attended the festival have either received positive test results or are awaiting their results.
"I think there were four stages and each one was packed both nights, everyone was squeezed together. There was a lot of - I hate to say it - sharing of water bottles and all of that. So when you think of COVID, it's pretty much the ideal breeding ground."
