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From tomorrow, Air New Zealand will require the use of face masks on all international flights to and from New Zealand.

• First published by RNZ

The requirement comes as the Ministry of Health today says it is confident the Northland Covid-19 community case came directly from the Pullman Hotel and there is no missing link.

Air NZ says the mask rule came about as a result of updated overseas government border requirements and as a further proactive safety measure to prevent the spread of Covid-19

Until today, passengers had to wear them on domestic flights, and on international flights from countries whose governments had made them compulsory, such as Australia, Samoa and South Korea, but not all international flights.

Air New Zealand chief operational integrity and safety officer David Morgan says the airline continues to proactively review operational processes to keep its customers, employees and New Zealand safe.

"Our customers are already required by law to wear masks inflight to a number of our destinations, so extending this mandate to the remainder of our network provides a further safeguard against any potential spread of the virus."

In a press conference this afternoon, director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield confirmed the strain of Covid-19 in the community case is the new South African variant.