New Zealand

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the couple returned to New Zealand on a repatriation flight from Delhi - AI-1306 - and arrived on 5 June. They also have an infant who has not been tested due to age.

The couple showed no symptoms and returned a positive result after being tested on day 12 of isolation.

"This morning the couple and their child have been transferred from the hotel where they have been, the Grand Millenium, to the Jet Park quarantine hotel."

Thornhill Contracting South Island manager Alistair Mitchell said he had 21 ni-Vanuatu workers heading home Friday (yesterday) who had been in New Zealand since October 2019.

"When our summer work ran out, we had to re-train them into winter jobs on the vineyard such as pruning," he said.

"The sector relies on the RSE (Recognised Seasonal Employer) workers to fill the employer gap and we are very grateful for their hard work."

Starting with its first Oceania Foundation Coach workshop in May, the netGO programme was developed to help deliver the Pacific Sporting Partnership (PSP) which is funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

PSP has been running for three years in Fiji, the Cook Islands, Tonga and Samoa, with Vanuatu now also joining the group.

NetGO Vanuatu country coordinator Virginia Taravaki claimed she was excited about bringing the programme to the nation.

This has been confirmed by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark.

 “With no commercial flight options available, the Vanuatu nationals who are largely made up of Recognised Seasonal Employment (RSE) workers, will  return to Vanuatu on  New Zealand Defence Force flights over the coming week,” said Mr Peters.

“The Government of Vanuatu has requested assistance from New Zealand to help get these workers home and New Zealand is supporting that request.

At 12:49am on Friday, the shake hit at a depth of 33km and was listed by GeoNet as happening 700km north-east of Gisborne. New Zealand's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) put it as being south of the Kermadec Islands. It was deemed "weak" by GeoNet.

But it's also further highlighted the difficult bind they find themselves in - risk the devastation of the coronavirus or prolong their economic suffering.

Fletcher Melvin, the head of the Cook Islands Chamber of Commerce and the Private Sector Taskforce, has been pushing hard for a travel bubble.

When Aotearoa declared zero cases a week ago, he was ecstatic, and so was the government - 87 percent of the country's economy relies on tourism, three quarters of those visitors from New Zealand.

Strode Road Orchard owner Lochie McNally said Vanuatu had not had a case of Covid-19 and the disease had been effectively eliminated in New Zealand, making it difficult to understand what Ni-Vanuatu officials were waiting for.

McNally said it would be cheaper to pay for flights home than to keep paying the men, in his case eight, as work ran out.

The hospitality and tourism sector accounts for more than 40 per cent of Vanuatu's GDP; the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme workers are key contributors to that economy.

In a statement released this afternoon, the Ministry of Health said the two new cases were related to the border as a result of recent travel from the UK.

The ministry said both cases were connected.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield would give a media briefing at 3pm, the release said.

Presuming the cases have not already been notified to the World Health Organisation by the UK, they bring New Zealand's confirmed cases to 1156, and the combined total of confirmed and probable cases to 1506.

New Zealand has had 22 deaths from the virus.

Angie Enoka recently completed her Doctorate of Philosophy, examining media coverage of New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer or RSE scheme.

Her work was the first doctoral study to look at media coverage of the scheme and one of the few Pasifika-researcher-led studies on any aspect of it.

Ms Enoka, who will graduate on 24 June, will also become the first Samoan fa'afafine with a PHD.

Her latest research analysed over 115 articles from regional newspapers and she said it showed the voices of the workers were lost.

Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna told Newshub earlier this month that without any cases of the disease, the Cook Islands poses no threat to New Zealand - and vice versa. Samoa, Kiribati, Nauru, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu and Tuvalu also haven't reported any cases.

New Zealand's last confirmed case was more than three weeks ago, and it's been four weeks since the last patient known to be infected via community transmission left self-isolation.