Coronavirus: Infected Grand Millennium border worker missed two vaccine appointments due to 'personal reasons'

The recently infected Auckland border worker missed two COVID-19 vaccine appointments due to "personal reasons", the Ministry of Health says.

The 24-year-old's positive test result was announced earlier on Thursday. Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said he worked at the Grand Millennium as a security guard and is one of the remaining border workers yet to receive a vaccine.

Dr Bloomfield said he didn't know why the worker wasn't vaccinated even though they had "certainly" been offered the vaccine.

The Ministry of Health said later on Thursday evening it "understands two appointments for vaccination were missed by the case due to personal reasons".

"The employer is being contacted for further relevant information."

They say the employer of this case has vaccinated 79 percent of its border workers and 81 percent of the Grand Millennium staff have received their first vaccination.

However, Newshub has revealed the Government does not know how many border workers it has.

It admitted in a statement to Newshub "we don't have the precise number of people" in the border workforce because they were "continually being recruited".

The Ministry says it will increase the frequency at which it tests staff as a precautionary measure.

"As part of the follow-up actions in response to the case the testing frequency for staff in the Grand Millennium has been increased to weekly for the next fortnight," the Ministry says.

"A spot infection control audit of the Grand Millennium was undertaken today."

There are no locations of interest currently linked to this case.

The Ministry of Health also confirmed that four family members from an adjoining house of this recent case have tested negative for COVID-19. A co-worker who often drove the case to and from work has also returned a negative result.

The Ministry says its overall assessment is that the public health risk to the wider community from this case is low.