Health officials are investigating whether an MIQ leak may have led to the latest Covid-19 community outbreak in Auckland.

At the 1pm case update on Thursday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the current cluster had been closely linked to a Sydney traveller who arrived in New Zealand on August 7 and was put into managed isolation at the Crowne Plaza.

That person soon returned a positive Covid-19 test and was transferred to the Jet Park quarantine hotel just days after arriving.

Ardern said health officials had since learned that three people who tested positive for the virus during their stay at the Crowne Plaza were in a room adjacent to the traveller from Sydney. This meant transmission of the virus to them likely happening inside the facility.

She said health officials could therefore assume there was a “high level” of infection in the Sydney traveller case.

Compliance of testing and vaccinations of staff at the facility was high, Ardern said, but officials were investigating whether this was how the virus had got into the community.

The virus being leaked through quarantine facility Jet Park Hotel was also being investigated as the Sydney traveller was taken there after testing positive.

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During their stay there, the person became unwell and was transferred to Middlemore Hospital, in south Auckland – but given this wasn’t until August 16 and other people who have subsequently tested positive were already symptomatic, the hospital was not believed to be the cause of the leak.

As a result of the likely in-facility transmission at the Crowne Plaza, a temporary freeze on travellers entering and exiting the hotel has been imposed for 48 hours.

Guests currently are unable to leave – even if their mandatory 14-day stay has come to an end after three people returned positive day 12 tests.

Just days ago, it was announced that the Delta variant had been passed on by two doors being open for a few seconds at the same time at Jet Park.

The Ministry of Health’s deputy director of public health, Dr Harriette Carr, said an investigation found doors on either side of the corridor were opened for about three to five seconds on four occasions between July 19 and 27, when a case in the room opposite would have been infectious.

Speaking to Stuff on Thursday, Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said he received a phone call Wednesday evening from the deputy director of public health, who said they had found a “bubble of three people in that facility [Crowne Plaza] who had returned positive day 12 tests, having tested negative previously”.

He said the priority was ensuring no-one else had been infected, which was the reason for extending the stays of those at the facility.

“Even if they have returned a negative day 12 test, they could be incubating it.”

Bloomfield said the Ministry of Health made the call to “prevent anyone from leaving” and will “possibly retest everybody again before they leave”.

He said the pause was “a bit inconvenient” but people would be leaving isolation into an alert level 4 lockdown anyway.

“It’s just a precaution we do take in these instances.”

A receptionist who answered the phone at the Crowne Plaza told Stuff the hotel’s spokesperson was unable to answer questions as he was getting a Covid test.

When contacted again, staff refused to comment.