A new case of COVID-19 has been detected in the community, health officials revealed on Thursday - an infection that may prove "concerning" if no links to the border or managed isolation and quarantine facilities (MIQ) can be confirmed, according to experts.
The case, an Auckland University of Technology student, lives alone and has had limited outings in recent days, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield confirmed at an impromptu press conference.
However, the student, who has not attended lectures since mid-October, continued to go to work - the clothing shop A-Z Collection on High Street - while they were potentially infectious.
Although both Dr Bloomfield and COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins have reiterated that it's too soon to consider shifting alert levels in Auckland, experts have acknowledged the case is "troubling" - particularly as the origin of their infection and how they contracted the virus are currently unconfirmed.
The case is "quite concerning", said Professor Shaun Hendy, a leading physicist from the University of Auckland. He added that the current lack of information puts the city in a "similar situation" to the beginning of the outbreak in August, where it was unclear how an Auckland family had contracted the virus.
"As public health officials have yet to identify any link to the border or to a MIQ facility, there is the possibility that we will face a rise in alert levels as we did in August," Prof Hendy said in a statement to Science Media Centre (SMC).
"Contact tracing and/or genomics may yet link this to one of the recent cases that have arisen in MIQ workers and this would mean we are facing a much more contained situation than we were in August. But if a link can't be established then we may be looking at a larger outbreak and this might require raising the alert level in Auckland.
"Both our testing rates and use of the app are higher than they were in early August, so I think we are likely in a better position now than we were then. Nonetheless, it is important that we all remain vigilant, especially those in the Auckland region."
Lesley Gray, a senior lecturer in the Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice at the University of Otago, said the unclear origins of the case is "a little troubling".
"I was travelling between Wellington and Christchurch earlier this week and it was very interesting to note minimal use of the hand sanitisers placed in many public areas, little apparent scans or check-ins with the COVID Tracer app at the airport, and I only saw one mask-wearing person in Wellington domestic terminal and three to four people wearing masks in Christchurch," Gray observed in a statement to SMC.
"To spell it out - we all have to be prepared for the possibility of a community case who perhaps may be asymptomatic and therefore will be going about their day to day routines, just like you and I."
Gray is now urging the Government to make masks mandatory on public transport once more. Face coverings were compulsory on public transport under alert level 2, following the tail-end of Auckland's last outbreak. However, the mandate was not continued under alert level 1, although health officials have encouraged New Zealanders to continue wearing masks while on buses, trains, planes and ferries.
"The main protections we have for ourselves currently have not changed: hand hygiene, physical distances when out and about, mask-wearing and knowing where you have been using the Tracer app," Grey continued.
"None of us wants alert level rises, and many will have great plans for summer outdoors."
A second community case was also announced on Thursday, another New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) worker - referred to as 'Case C' - who is connected to the November quarantine cluster. The case, who is Wellington-based, is a close contact of another Defence Force staffer, dubbed 'Case B'.
Hipkins and Dr Bloomfield will front a second press conference with any additional updates on the community case at 5pm.
