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A Christchurch high school student is a close contact on the city’s new Covid-19 community case.
The Canterbury District Board of Health sent a letter to Cashmere High School parents on Tuesday confirming that the student was a close contact, but had tested negative and was isolated at home.
“Students and staff don’t need to be screened unless they have Covid-19 symptoms, and they don’t need to isolate themselves.”
The positive case, announced Monday night by the Health Ministry, is a MIQ staff member working at the Sudima Hotel near the Christchurch airport, where international sailors are in isolation and administered quarantine. The person is not a hotel employee.
READ MORE:
* Covid-19: New community case in Christchurch related to foreign fishermen
* Three more fishermen test positive for Covid-19 in Christchurch
* The second flight of the Russian fishermen will probably be delayed to avoid the overcrowding of the MIQ
* Covid-19: seven new cases at Christchurch hotel, second fishermen flight may be delayed
Cashmere High School Board of Trustees Chairman Geordie Hooft said the school will continue to operate within Tier 1 guidelines.
Joseph Johnson / Stuff
Person visited this Countdown supermarket on Colombo St, Christchurch between 11.30am M. And 12:30 p.m. M. Sunday.
“Yesterday afternoon the school was informed that one of the students had been identified as having been in close contact with someone with Covid. The student tested negative and is now isolating himself at home, ”Hooft said.
“The school ensures that the family and the student are well cared for and supported during their time in isolation.”
More than 2,100 students attended Cashmere High School.
Hooft said the Health Ministry said there was a low level of risk from close contact and that no changes were required regarding the events that were planned at the school.
“We are not going to publish any demographic data (about the student), I don’t think it adds to the information the community needs.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told TVNZ’s Breakfast program on Tuesday that the only close contact tested negative and that public health officials would decide where the positive case would complete the quarantine.
A supermarket in Christchurch underwent a deep cleaning overnight after the Covid-19 positive person visited it on Sunday between 11.30am and 12.30pm.
Joseph Johnson / Stuff
The new Covid-19 community case is a MIQ staff member who works at the Sudima hotel near the Christchurch airport, but they are not Sudima employees.
Ardern said the person’s isolation at his home was not due to MIQ facilities being at full capacity.
“This case was only identified yesterday afternoon, so it is not unusual for him to take a little time to identify all his close contacts, do the tests that need to be done, and then work to make sure we are placing the person. at [MIQ] installation if that’s the right place for them to be. “
Figures from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment show that all six Christchurch MIQ facilities are over capacity by 52 points. The city’s MIQ facilities have a total capacity of 1,092.
Ardern said public health officials will make the decision on the best place for the positive case to stay.
“For the most part, most of the time, of course, our cases go back to a facility.”
He said the worker had “mild symptoms.”
Ardern told RNZ that New Zealand’s testing system was “built for these types of incidents” and said authorities had caught the case “well and early.”
CONTROL POINT / RNZ
Russian fishing crews believed to be at the center of a covid outbreak at an isolation facility tested negative and spent fourteen days isolated in their own homes before boarding a charter flight to New Zealand.
He said he understood that the Health Ministry would send an automatic notification in the Covid tracking app to people visiting the Countdown store.
Countdown Security General Manager Kiri Hannifin said the person visited his Colombo St store in Sydenham between 11:30 am and 12:30 pm on Sunday, November 1.
She said Countdown was notified Monday night of the positive case visiting the store. The supermarket was closed for a deep cleaning overnight. It reopened at 8 a.m. on Tuesday.
Hannafin said the positive case was a great example of why it was important to use the government’s Covid tracking app.
All store workers had been called in and briefed on the situation, and Countdown was offering support to its workers as deep cleaning could be “quite stressful” for some, he said.
Joseph Johnson / Stuff
Countdown on Colombo St, Sydenham, reopened on Tuesday after an overnight deep cleaning.
The person’s visit to Countdown on Sunday morning is at odds with the schedule provided by the Health Ministry, which said the positive case had been isolated at home since Saturday, when they developed symptoms.
The Ministry has been contacted for further comment.
The positive community case was evaluated as part of routine testing for staff at the facility and returned a negative test on Thursday, October 29. On Saturday, they developed symptoms. They looked for a new test on Sunday and received a positive result on Monday.
Sudima COO Les Morgan said the person who tested positive was not an employee of Sudima.
More details of the new case and the actions taken in response will be provided at the 1:00 p.m. press conference on Tuesday.
The first of the Russian and Ukrainian fishermen, who were due to complete their managed isolation Tuesday morning, will have their managed isolation extended for at least 24 hours as an additional precautionary measure.
Those precautionary measures have included additional tests, up to four tests for some people, and an already prolonged stay in controlled isolation. The first cases at the facility were confirmed on October 20, when the facility closed.
Once this group of 235 fishermen have left MIQ, the Sudima Hotel will undergo a deep cleaning, which according to health authorities will take approximately 72 hours, to prepare it for a second flight with foreign fishermen.
The second flight was originally supposed to land on Monday, but has been delayed to avoid overcrowding at the Sudima Hotel, which is being used exclusively by foreign fishermen.
The sailors were brought into the country to work on fishing boats run by Sealord, Independent Fisheries, and Maruha Nichiro. The three companies are covering the costs of the quarantine, which is expected to be around $ 1 million.
The new community case is the first on the South Island since late July, when a person who later tested positive for Covid-19 in South Korea visited Christchurch.
