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Some people who sought Covid swabs after last week's community case scare needed to be tested twice due to an 'error in the system', says director general of health Ashley Bloomfield.
He said this didn't represent an alarming issue, as sometimes numbers fell off Covid codes from time to time.
Bloomfield told Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB that a number of people in Northland had to be retested because there were no records of their results.
"It does happen ocassionally. We had many thousands of people get tested last week in a whole range of centres.
"Every now and then, and it's just usually an error in the system, a small one, it may be just a data entry error, sometimes a label falls off a sample, this happens in hospitals as well, but the important thing is to make sure we find out whether or not the test result is there and if it's not to retest people," Bloomfield said.
Airborne transmission seemed the most likely way Covid was spread among returnees in the Pullman hotel which led to last week's community outbreak in Northland and Orewa, Bloomfield said.
"It's hard to see how it would go through that. All the rooms are separate," he said.
He said it was possible when the infected person went out of their room the virus could have been swept out into the corridor.
Someone in the same area a short time later could have inhaled the same air and become infected.
"Airborne transmission is the most likely route so that's as far as we've got so far."
The three community cases - all of who tested positive after leaving managed isolation at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland - sparked a testing blitz where thousands of people sought swabs.
"You do see this happening, remembering in the northern region over the last year or so there's been 800,000 Covid-19 tests done and reported."
Meanwhile, preparations are underway to roll out Covid-19 vaccines to 225,000 Kiwis on the frontline, including cleaners, bus drivers, port workers, security staff, air crew and their households.
Bloomfield this morning was not able to give a firm date for when the immunisation would start, saying it would be in the first quarter.
Bloomfield said as soon as health officials knew when the rollout of the upcoming vaccination drive could take place they would inform the public of dates.
"It's the first quarter. Our hope is that it will be sooner rather than later in the quarter and we will be ready if it is sooner."
The aim was to be able to offer the vaccine to every New Zealander by the end of the year.
Medsafe had now started looking at data as the approval process now started for the AstraZeneca vaccine.
At least two more vaccines had started the process to gain Medsafe approval, he said.
Janssen was in the process at the moment and AstraZeneca had this week put in its formal application.
He said both vaccinations were likely to be available in New Zealand from April onwards once approved.
On addressing concerns about the use of AstraZeneca for those aged over 65 years, Bloomfield said he was looking closely at overseas results.
"I'm not worried. What I am interested to do is see what happens in the countries because many countries have approved it for over 65s. It's just that the number of over 65s in the trials were small and some countries are a bit cautious about giving it in that group."
There was nothing to suggest that it wouldn't be effective in that group, he said.
Bloomfield said the upcoming Covid vaccine drive was going to work because officials had put a "huge amount of effort" making sure it would work.
He said it would be necessary to replace the existing national immunisation register with a new register.
"The team, by the end of last calendar year, already had a system that could be used if needed and they are upgrading and improving that on a weekly basis," he said.
Health officials have also recommended frail and elderly people needing hospital-level care be included in the priority vaccination group with the majority of New Zealand'...