Initial tests on a woman who was exposed to Covid-19 at the Ocean Shores retirement village in Mount Maunganui have come back negative.

It emerged yesterday lunchtime that the son of a resident, who had been staying with them on the Maranui Street site, had tested positive for Covid-19.

The visitor, a worker at Tauranga Hospital, was subsequently moved to an MIQ facility in Rotorua.

The resident was tested yesterday and the negative result was returned this morning.

The village is operated by Arvida and their CEO Jeremy Nicoll has told SunLive this morning they are remaining cautious onsite, but are relieved at the outcome of the initial test.

'It is very good news,” says Jeremy.

The resident will undergo further testing later this week and remains isolated in their villa.

Testing is being offered to those residents and staff that came into contact with the resident.

'We are just offering the testing to any residents and staff that were in contact with the lady,” says Jeremy.

'If she is negative now that means she would not have been infective when in contact, which is great news.”

A mobile testing site that was potentially earmarked for use by the Ministry of Health has not been implemented.

'The Ministry was ready to act if it came back positive,” says Jeremy.

'As it is not, they do not think it is necessary and a testing unit is not required.”

Whilst stopping short of suggesting the village is in lockdown, Jeremy says precautions are still in place.

'We are being very cautious,” he says.

'We have the gate manned and are restricting movement of people in and out.

'Communication is important. Making sure we are talking to everyone in the village and that they are aware of the points of where the resident was socialising.”

The visitor who has tested positive is double vaccinated and yesterday Jeremy said he hoped that would reduce the 'transmissibility” of the virus, although admitted the resident was single vaccinated and they had been in very close proximity.

There were five new cases of Covid-19 being reported in the Bay of Plenty yesterday.

The Ministry of Health is providing an update on cases across the Bay of Plenty and the rest of New Zealand at 1pm today.

Of these cases, four are linked to existing cases in Mount Manganui. Investigations are underway into any possible links between the remaining case and any known cases.

A Ministry of Health spokesperson says it's critical that anyone with any cold or flu symptoms gets tested as quickly as possible – maintaining a high rate of testing in the Bay of Plenty will help to contain the spread of Covid-19.

Case interviews continue to identify new locations of interest which are being added regularly to the webpage which can be found here.

Testing locations for the Bay of Plenty can be found on the Healthpoint website.