Dr Ashley Bloomfield has warned the media against overstepping on COVID-19 patient privacy following an incident in which a media representative visited the house of a close contact.
In Friday's 1pm press conference, the Director-General of Health revealed the media person went to the house of a close contact associated with the Auckland marine cluster twice in the past couple days.
He says he "greatly appreciates the role media has played" in the COVID-19 public health response, but reminded them to "please respect the processes that are in place and particularly the privacy of individuals."
An employee of a company that works on-board vessels at the ports of Auckland tested positive for the virus on Saturday, and there are now three cases connected to the cluster.
Dr Bloomfield says the close contact, associated with the port worker, was in self isolation and answered the door as they were expecting health officials.
"The media person went to the door and spoke to a family member who was at the time a close contact."
Bloomfield says there is a risk of infection to the media representative, but security footage has revealed they stood at least five metres from the close contact.
"There was a distance of at least five metres between the media rep and the close contact. Thankfully this does mean there is very little risk of transmission."
Dr Bloomfield also added he was aware of journalists repeatedly contacting one of the new COVID-19 cases.
"That case has stopped answering their phone, which can slow down the public health response," he said.
It's not known which media outlet the person works for.
