Despite news of a cluster of Covid-19 cases in Auckland, Taranaki’s top health official has reassured the public there is no current evidence of the infection in the region.

Dr Jonathan Jarman, medical officer of health for Taranaki District Health Board (TDHB), confirmed there had not been a person diagnosed with the Covid-19 infection for months.

“The last person with Covid-19 infection in Taranaki was a 58-year-old woman who was diagnosed at the end of April,” he said in a written statement issued on Sunday.

Before that, there had been a total of 16 cases recorded in Taranaki.

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He said he understood people might be “a little anxious” given the cluster of infections in Auckland.

On August 12, at noon, the alert level responses created as a means to tackle the global pandemic in New Zealand were raised in response to signs of community transmission of the disease in Auckland, the origin of which remains under investigation.

The country’s biggest city moved to alert level 3, while the rest of the country was put on alert level 2, including Taranaki.

These measures remain in place until August 26, but will be reviewed by Cabinet on Monday.

As of Sunday, there were 114 active cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, with nine people in hospital.

Tracing of contacts of those diagnosed continues, but there are no locations of interest in Taranaki listed on the Ministry of Health website.

Jarman confirmed TDHB’s Public Health Unit (PHU) had not asked, or required, any businesses to clean their premises.

“Businesses planning to close and do a deep clean are urged to give the PHU a phone call to ensure this approach is useful, otherwise it would be a waste of money. The usefulness of deep cleans is also uncertain,” he said.

“By far the main way that people catch Covid-19 is through direct exposure to an infectious person.”

Since the alert level changes were introduced on August 12, a total of 2621 tests had been completed across Taranaki.

In the six months prior to August 12, a total of 10,269 tests were done.

Testing continued for the infection in the region over the weekend, with two sites in New Plymouth and one in Hāwera operating.

Surveillance testing will also resume at Port Taranaki this coming week, as part of wider border testing regimes in place around the country.

In an August 21 statement, Becky Jenkins, TDHB incident management controller, said in the past week, more than 40 port staff and contractors were tested for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) staff have been deployed to work at Port Taranaki to assist the Customs Service at the maritime border.

This was part of a measure undertaken across all commercial ports in the country.

In a written statement, Port Taranaki’s chief executive Guy Roper said induction of NZDF staff was completed on Sunday.

The arrival of NZDF staff was part of a range of measures in place at the port to ensure border safety, along with testing and use of personal protective equipment.