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A garbage can is being blamed after two people from an isolation and quarantine hotel in Christchurch caught Covid-19.
Both tested positive for the virus after flying back to Auckland from isolation in September, despite both having two negative tests while at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Christchurch.
Public Health Director Dr. Caroline McElnay said investigations at the Crowne Plaza, including viewing CCTV footage, identified the dumpster as the likely source.
Cecilia Fabiano / AP
Two people tested positive for Covid after leaving an isolation facility.
“While we cannot be sure, our hypothesis is that the virus may have been transmitted to a person … through the surface of a dumpster, which was used by another returnee who was likely infectious at the facility.”
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The person who picked up the virus from the container likely passed it on to a second person at the hotel who sat near them as they traveled on the northbound flight.
MINISTRY OF HEALTH
Health officials believe that a person who was diagnosed with coronavirus after emerging from managed isolation in Christchurch contracted the virus from a dumpster.
“This shows how complicated this virus can be and that it can be transmitted through surfaces.”
McElnay said that as a result of the outbreak, procedures at isolation facilities would be tightened.
“The Ministry of Health has now updated its infection prevention and control guide for facilities, so that all containers in public areas will now be left untouched and all trash must be securely sealed in plastic bags before disposal. in the containers ”.
STACY SQUIRES / Stuff
The Crowne Plaza is now a full-fledged isolation facility with black fences separating the building from the public.
McElnay said that while the cases in the resulting group included domestic contacts, “extensive contact tracing” did not reveal any other cases detected on the flight.
Schedule (from the Ministry of Health):
- August 27: The flight arrives from India via Fiji with the returnees who are transferred to a managed isolation in Christchurch.
- August 30: Two people test positive on the third day and are transferred to quarantine. One is believed to have been infected in India (1st person) and subsequently infected the other on the international flight (2nd person).
- September 10: The Health Ministry reports that the isolation case administered at Crowne Plaza in Christchurch tested positive for Covid-19 on the 12th through surveillance tests. Case transferred to quarantine (third person). This person is believed to have been infected by the first person, on the international flight, and was incubating the virus on his third day test. (The third person shared a common garbage can in the isolation hotel with a fourth person.)
- September 11: Charter flight from Christchurch to Auckland. The fourth person and the child sat behind the fifth person.
- September 19: Fifth person reported as positive for Covid-19.
- Sept. 20: The fifth person’s two household contacts were reported to have tested positive for Covid-19.
- September 23: The fourth person and child were reported to have tested positive for Covid-19. Contact with home is also positive.
