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Experts are urging the government to rethink isolation procedures after a series of new Covid cases and news that a Christchurch garbage can may have spread the virus.
Twelve new cases of isolation facilities announced Thursday included 10 that arrived on the same flight from India. No new cases were announced on Friday.
On Friday, it was revealed that the probable source of a September cluster was a garbage can touched by a returnee while in isolation at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Christchurch.
The virus was then transmitted to another person coming out of isolation on a charter flight back to Auckland and then to domestic contacts.
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Professor Nick Wilson, from the University of Otago’s department of public health, said the government should consider pre-screening travelers from heavily infected countries “like the UK, the US and India … if you really are serious about reducing another big outbreak. “
“This large number of cases that all arrive in a single day impose additional burdens and risks on New Zealand’s quarantine system. It should encourage serious work by health authorities to further reduce risks. “
Joseph Johnson / Stuff
The exercise yard at the Crowne Plaza hotel in central Christchurch, where returning Kiwis are in controlled isolation.
Wilson said returnees from high-risk countries could require a negative Covid test before flying.
He also suggested that the government abandon the use of isolation hotels and “seriously study” the idea of specially designed quarantine facilities at places like the Ōhakea airbase, he said.
Public Health Director Dr. Caroline McElnay said investigations at the Crowne Plaza, including viewing CCTV footage, identified the dumpster as the likely source of the two cases that tested negative before exiting isolation. .
The virus was thought to have been transferred to the trash by an arrival from India, via Fiji.
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.”
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.
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 9/11 northbound flight.
“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.
Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, an epidemiologist at the University of Otago, said a review of New Zealand’s isolation system should assess every step international travelers took until they arrived.
Without a secure border, there was an “unacceptable level of risk,” even in countries with relatively low community transmission, he said.
“If legal loopholes are left for the virus, we can be sure that sooner or later it will exploit them.”
Chronology (from the Ministry of Health):
- August 27: The flight arrives from India via Fiji, returnees 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 isolation case at Crowne Plaza tests positive for Covid-19 on the 12th and is transferred to quarantine (third person). This person, believed to have been infected by the first person on the international flight, was incubating the virus in her third-day test. This 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: The fifth person tested positive for Covid-19.
- September 20: The fifth person’s two household contacts reported testing positive.
- September 23: Fourth person and child, and family contact, reported as positive.
