Coronavirus Covid-19: New Auckland case involves worker in quarantine hotel

A worker at an Auckland quarantine facility tested positive for Covid-19.

The Health Ministry says that because the person works at the facility and is not a returnee, it is considered a community case.

The case was reported to the ministry this afternoon.

The person has been tested regularly as part of routine testing for facility personnel, the last time a swab was taken on November 3 and it tested negative on November 4.

The staff member developed symptoms yesterday and was re-examined. That test came back positive, the Health Ministry said.

People in contact with workers are being tracked, isolated and tested.

The Auckland Regional Public Health Service contacted two Auckland companies and notified them that the worker visited their facilities during his infectious period.

A push notification has been sent through the NZ Covid Tracer to everyone who scanned at these businesses at the relevant time.

The ministry said in a statement that managed isolation workers underwent regular testing.

As in other recent cases, this worker was quickly tested as soon as symptoms were noticed. Early case identification coupled with quick contact tracing helps stop any spread of the virus.

Auckland’s Mezze Bar and a bottle shop on Queen St were the two businesses the man had been in when he was infected.

Anyone at the Mezze Bar between 11 a.m. M. And the 1 p. M. Thursday is considered casual contact. They should watch for symptoms and get tested if they feel unwell, ARPHS said.

An ARPHS spokesperson said the person dined alone and no close contacts have been identified at the restaurant.

The case also went to a Liquor.Com bottle store on Queen St on Thursday for 15 minutes around 1.30pm.

All people who visited around this time between 1:00 p.m. M. And 2:00 p.m. M. They were also casual contacts and should be on the lookout for symptoms, the spokesperson said.

“Close contacts of the case at home and at work have been identified and all are self-isolating and are in the process of being tested.”

Mezze Bar owner Sally Hindmarsh said she was contacted by health officials just before 7 p.m. with the news.

“I thought it was a prank call at first, so I called them and asked them to email me.”

Once he realized that it wasn’t a joke, his reaction was one of dismay.

Hindmarsh said there were people at about six tables, so he immediately told them that there had been one person at the bar the day before who has since tested positive. Then he closed the tapas bar and will spend the rest of the evening doing a deep cleaning.

“We are very, very attentive to our cleaning process and everything will be fine by tomorrow.”

He said he was not very busy during the time the person visited yesterday and the advice for anyone who was there, including six staff members, was to get tested if they were worried or started showing any symptoms.

The ARPHS spokeswoman said that people who scanned the NZ Covid-19 Tracer app at Mezze Bar or Liquor.Com during these hours should receive a notification, confirming that they were there around the same time as the case.

Users and staff should be on the lookout for symptoms of the virus for the next 14 days. If they develop symptoms, they should call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 or their GP and get tested.

Symptoms of Covid-19 are new or worsening cough, sore throat, runny nose, loss of sense or smell, or fever.

This is the seventh time, and probably the eighth, in just over three months, that Covid-19 has been transmitted from inside an isolation or managed quarantine (MIQ) facility to the community.

The others are Rydges’ maintenance worker, the Jet Park nurse, the foreign returnee who caught Covid from a shared garbage cover and tested positive after leaving MIQ, the port engineer, and each of Sudima’s two nurses. . It is also likely that the August group came from an MIQ facility, although there is no evidence.

Infection prevention and control measures have been audited twice and are currently being reviewed by Deputy Health Minister Ayesha Verrall, an infectious disease specialist, in light of recent cases among border workers.

Yesterday, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told the Herald that the use of N95 masks, which protect against potentially infectious airborne particles, were being considered for these workers.

Sudima’s nurses wore surgical masks to protect themselves against potentially infectious droplets, but did not wear N95 masks.

He said they could have also caught Covid-19 when Covid-positive sailors were transferred from the hotel’s isolation wing to the quarantine wing.

Border control measures were as strong as ever, Hipkins said, despite several cases in just over three months in which Covid-19 leaked from a border facility into the community.

“They have all been well contained very quickly and the system has worked as it should,” he said.

“We will not repeat the same mistakes again. Whenever something happens, if there is a weakness, the weakness is resolved.”

But public health experts have called these cases border failures.

“No system can be perfect, but we must face the fact that these are flaws in infection control,” said epidemiologist Sir David Skegg.

“How many wake up calls do we need?”