Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiarangi has confirmed a staff member at their Bay of Plenty campus has self-isolated after being identified as a contact connected to a South Auckland family who tested positive for COVID-19.

Chief executive Wiremu Doherty says the staff member was alerted to being a contact this morning and had been on campus on Friday, February 12.

'About three or four staff members have now gone into isolation as a precaution,” he says. 'No students were on campus at the time."

Contact with the staff member was isolated to one area of the Whakatane campus which has now been sectioned off for a deep clean to occur.

Wiremu says it is a precautionary matter and all classes will take place online over the next few days at least.

'We have a COVID team here that communicates with students and can change teaching methods at short notice."

The university asks people have travelled to Auckland in the past 10 days and have COVID-19 symptoms to contact Healthline or a doctor.

-Matt Shand/Stuff