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After 22 days with no new Covid-19 cases in the community, a dock worker in New Zealand tested positive for the coronavirus.
The case is a New Zealand man who worked in the ports of Taranaki and Auckland and began showing symptoms on Friday, before testing positive on Saturday night.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Chief Health Officer, was alerted to the positive test in the last hour of Saturday’s vote in the New Zealand election, in which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was rewarded for her success in eliminating two times of the virus.
The man and his family are now isolated, and Bloomfield said the case was being treated as an isolated encounter that had likely seen the infected man at the border, rather than through widespread community circulation.
“The risk is contained,” Bloomfield said Saturday. “The emergence of a new community case is disturbing and we must remain vigilant.
“The case is another reminder that Covid-19 will not go away anytime soon.”
Bloomfield said New Zealanders should not become complacent, as Covid-19 continued to devastate the United States and many parts of Europe.
The ports of Taranaki and Auckland will now face further testing, Bloomfield said. The infected man wore personal protective equipment (PPE) while working on foreign ships and had been examined by Covid four times.
“While we have eliminated community transmission in New Zealand … that is not the case abroad, where the virus is spreading and there are significant restrictions,” warned Bloomfield.
In August, Auckland entered a second three-week lockdown after a large cluster of the disease emerged in south Auckland, with more than 100 people infected. The last confirmed community case in New Zealand was on September 25.
Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles, from the University of Auckland School of Biological Sciences, said the latest case was unlikely to have led to community transmission, and rapid identification of the disease showed that border protections appeared to be working.
“Most likely the person will be infected after being on an international ship for maintenance sometime in the last two weeks. Genomic sequencing can help better identify the source of your infection, ”said Wiles.
Ardern assured New Zealanders on Saturday that there was nothing at this stage to suggest that a change in alert levels was needed.
“There is nothing to suggest that any of the restriction levels are moved, this is a person who was working in a high-risk area and was tested multiple times,” Ardern said. “This individual has already been evaluated as part of the routine tests four times. This is an example of how the system works. “
