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This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and republished with permission.
There has been an increase in the number of people returning to New Zealand from India and testing positive for Covid-19.
It occurs at the same time that India has overtaken Brazil to become the second country most affected by Covid.
In the past fortnight, 26 people tested positive after returning from India, 20 of them on just one flight.
READ MORE:
* Coronavirus: New Case of Covid-19 at Christchurch Managed Isolation Facility
* Coronavirus: Covid-19 negative tests leaving India, positive on arrival in New Zealand
* Five new Christchurch Covid cases tested negative when they boarded a plane to New Zealand
* Fiji now has three new Covid-19 cases as citizens return from India
Travel to and from India was largely impossible at the start of the global pandemic, but a recent return of flights has contributed to an increase in the number of Covid cases imported here.
The flights landed in New Zealand on August 23 and 27, landing in Christchurch with a stopover in Fiji.
Since their arrival, 26 people in controlled isolation and quarantine have tested positive after traveling from India.
Ajit Solanki / AP
A healthcare worker takes a nasal swab sample to test for Covid-19 in Ahmedabad, India on Sunday. India’s coronavirus cases have surpassed 4 million, leading the world in new infections and deepening misery in vast areas of the interior of the country, where surges have crippled the underfunded health care system.
Of these 20 are from the first flight, six from the second.
These cases included people, especially children, who had contracted the disease from other family members.
Six of the current managed isolation and quarantine cases related to India are children.
Economist and epidemiologist Ramanan Laxminarayan said that with the lockdown measures lifted, Indian cases are on an upward trajectory.
“The low number of tests is no longer a problem just to count the cases, because no one is really tracking these reported infections.
“If you don’t get tested, people don’t know that they are Covid-positive and then they are transmitting the infection to people, their families and workplaces.”
Dr. Ramanan Laxminarayan said the lack of evidence meant that positive cases were probably not underreported and that the true count could be 50 to 100 times higher.
India has had 4.2 million reported cases and more than 71,000 deaths.
Rohit Sharma recently returned from India and told First Up that all passengers had to return a negative result before boarding.
“All of us, no matter where we live in India, have to quarantine in New Delhi at a hotel designated by the Fiji High Commission.
“At that hotel we had a Covid test on the 3rd. We can only board that flight if we have a negative Covid test.”
Sharma said they also spent two weeks in quarantine in New Delhi before flying.
His flight transited through Fiji, causing a scare in the Pacific nation.
But Fiji’s Health Secretary James Fong said there was no threat to the community because the Christchurch-bound passengers did not leave the terminal in Nadi.
“We note that several recent confirmed cases at the New Zealand border in Christchurch have transited through Fiji while traveling from India.
“We want to assure the public that these people did not contact or transmit the virus while in Fiji.
“They landed in Fiji, spent 30 minutes in the Nadi airport transit area, didn’t interact with anyone and then transited to New Zealand,” he said.
Since August 28, five recent travelers have tested positive after arriving from places other than India.
