Auckland

Revenues slipped $3m to $175m due to a drop in advertising.

But the state-owned broadcaster said it experienced “positive audience and revenue momentum” in the final quarter of last year which had continued into the new year.

Because of that, it expected to “significantly exceed” its financial forecasts for the full year to the end of June.

The company’s profit was up from just under $16m in the same period in 2019, thanks to a $33m drop in costs, almost three-quarters of which was attributable to lower spending on content because of Covid.

There have been no changes to the alert levels at this stage.

Minister for Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield have provided an update.

Hipkins confirmed the three new cases of Covid-19 in the community are a mother, father and daughter from the same household in Papatoetoe.

The mother works for laundry and catering company LSG Skychefs, which services planes at the airport.

Her main duties at the company involved laundry duties, but she was also involved in some of the packing and preparation of food.

In a statement today, the Ministry of Health said the death has not been included in the official Covid-related deaths "at this stage".

The Ministry said the patient was transferred from a managed isolation facility into hospital-level care for the treatment of a serious non-Covid related condition earlier this month, and then returned a positive result.

The Ministry said the patient spoke with family daily, either by zoom or phone.

"On behalf of New Zealanders, I want to recognise this family's loss," said Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.

In the middle of the year, the 40-year-old Aucklander will return home after more than a decade in the UK, with wife Olivia and young sons Teddy (2) and Toby (4 months) on board for the adventure.

And when he settles back into life in Aotearoa, the fast-changing sport, media and entertainment landscape could also be in for a serious shake-up.

Gemmell will head up the Auckland office of Whisper, the production company that Spark Sport recruited to produce its coverage of the Black Caps in the deal with NZ Cricket. But Whisper sees that as only the first step.

A 44-year-old Ni-Vanuatu man, who arrived in Auckland Wednesday afternoon from Vanuatu, died during a medical incident at the Crowne Plaza Hotel which is operating as a managed isolation facility.

MIQ Head Brigadier Jim Bliss says this is a tragic situation for his family and those he travelled with.

Guardian journalist Elle Hunt says people have strung up lights and decorations, and a wreath competition run by the facility is seeing inventive recycling of meal bags.

With the unpleasantness of her day-three Covid-19 test over Hunt was looking forward to Christmas lunch - of which there were an impressive number of options.

"After much consideration I went for the eye fillet carvery and then spent the next couple of days thinking about whether I had made the wrong choice.

"There [was] also turkey, there was a fish option."

The person lives alone in the Vincent Residences, an apartment block in the CBD which is next to the Grand Millenium Hotel.

The hotel, which is a managed isolation facility, had a fire alarm evacuation on Monday night, but that evacuation is not likely to be the source of the infection because the woman became symptomatic that same day.

A Managed Isolation and Quarantine spokesperson earlier said guests were evacuated using strict infection control protocols including PPE, masks and physical distancing.

In a statement, the Ministry said the person works at the facility and is not a returnee, so are considered a community case.

The case was reported to the Ministry this afternoon.

It said the person had been tested regularly. They were most recently swabbed on 3 November and returned a negative test the next day.

But the staff member then developed symptoms on 5 November and was tested again that day. That test has returned a positive result.

Contacts of the worker are being traced, isolated and tested.

Auckland Council's economic team, which has tallied the cost, said the total 4205 jobs lost in the region were 60 percent of the national total for the month.

Its chief economist David Norman said the city's job losses averaged 200 a day - which was fewer than the 250 a day forecast in alert level 3, but still high.

"These are real people. It's lives and families to support, and a lot of them lost their jobs; over 400. So that's a real impact".

Ardern says Cabinet met via Zoom to review the Auckland's alert level and that all signs point to the city's cluster being under control.

She says there were 179 cases attached to the cluster but that there has been no new cases within that cluster for 10 days now.

"There has only been one case in the past two weeks and only five people from the cluster are yet to recover."

She says there is now a 95 percent probability of the cluster being eliminated, according to research.

"I know for many, this one has felt harder, especially for Aucklanders."