This week two more locations of interest close to home in Queenstown have been added to the Ministry of Health list. 

Frankton Beach Playground and Shotover Jet, for the second time this month, have been named as casual contact exposure places, where someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 had visited. 

Anyone who was there at the same time is asked to self-monitor for 10 days after they were exposed.

"If symptoms develop, get a test and stay at home until you get a negative test result", Ministry advice reads.

The alert covers Shotover Jet Queenstown, in Arthurs Point Road, from 9.45am to 11.45am on Tuesday, 11 January, and Frankton Beach Playground, from 11am to 3pm on the same day. 

Earlier this week Queenstown Airport, At Thai Restaurant on Church St in Queenstown CBD, and Remarkable Sweet Shop Arrowtown were named as locations of interest.

Someone visited those locations on Monday and Tuesday, 10 and 11 January (Remarks Sweet Shop 1pm-1.20pm, 10 Jan; At Thai Restaurant Queenstown, 9pm-10pm, 10 Jan; Queenstown Airport 4pm-9pm, 11 Jan). 

The Ministry does not reveal whether the locations have been named because one or more than one people visited them.

Shotover Jet, SkyCity Casino and the Oaks Club Suites were previously named as locations of interest. But all were on days surrounding New Year, and the monitoring period has now passed with no news of spread to the local community.

There have been no community cases of the Delta variant of Covid-19 in the Queenstown Lakes District or Central Otago so far. Yesterday there were 39 new community cases recorded nationally, including a further two cases in Hawke's Bay.

"It seems obvious Omicron is going to get here sometime soon. I for one would certainly like to know any time I might have been near a positive case so I can take measures to protect loved ones and colleagues by isolating if need be." says Mayor Tim.

"Scanning is more crucial than ever, as is getting vaccinated or getting your booster. We also need to be making sure our households are ready with a plan for how to manage when the virus arrives"

To assist keeping you informed and up to date, The Central App has set up a Places of Interest section under our COVID button, which will update you for places of interest closer to home.

We are reminded that it is not a case of 'if' but 'when' we start seeing cases in Central Otago. We will notify you as and when this happens.