A worker at Auckland airport has returned a positive test result for COVID-19, but New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said she does not expect it to shut down quarantine-free travel across the Tasman.

The positive case came just a day after the trans-Tasman bubble opened.

Ms Ardern, speaking after the New Zealand Ministry of Health confirmed authorities were following the usual process of isolating the case, interviewing them and tracing their contact movements was underway, revealed she had not yet spoken to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

“Our Minister of Health has kept in touch with his counterpart,” she said.

“So they are directly communicating, so are our officials.

“Everyone, therefore, knows the case we have and that it’s connected to the border. And these are the kinds of scenarios where we would anticipate moving continuing.”

The case was detected in a worker who had been cleaning the interiors of aircraft used to transport people from high-risk countries into New Zealand, some of whom have COVID.

“I can confirm that that was someone who was vaccinated, and fully vaccinated, quite early on in the campaign,” Ms Ardern said.