Silver Ferns coach Dame Noeline Taurua will miss New Zealand's opening two games of their upcoming Quad Series, after testing positive for COVID-19.
The World Cup-winning coach hopes to join her team later this week, after completing her self-isolation and negative testing.
Assistant coach Debbie Fuller will step into Taurua's role, with Reinga Bloxham, who was due to guide the NZ A side, acting as her assistant.
The NZ A team will now be co-coached by Marianne Delaney-Hoshek and Yvette McCausland-Durie in the series, which also features matches against the NZ Men and a NZ Mixed Invitational team.
Netball NZ high performance head Keir Hansen admits it's disappointing not to have Taurua in camp, but they have prepared for various scenarios in the current climate.
"COVID is very much still playing a part in the sporting landscape and our planning leading into the Cadbury Netball Series included the options we would need to take, if management were affected," he said.
"Dame Noeline will remain in touch with the team remotely and will return as soon as she is allowed to, but this will also be an opportunity for our high performance coaches to step into the breach and continue the hard work to prepare our athletes for the Commonwealth Games."
Fuller, who was Taurua's assistant at the successful 2019 Netball World Cup campaign, is embracing the challenge of stepping into the head coach role.
"The series is a really important part of our preparation for this month's Commonwealth Games, so our goals remain the same, as far as getting as much out of these matches as possible ahead of our trip to Birmingham for this pinnacle sporting event," she said.
"I'm looking forward to working with Reinga to ensure we don't miss a beat in our build-up to the Games and we can't wait for Dame Noeline to return to camp, once she has completed her COVID protocols."
