Covid 19 coronavirus: Ashley Bloomfield confirms first case of healthcare worker linked to infected Russian sailors

Testing has confirmed that the latest outbreak in the Christchurch community is connected to a strain of Covid-19 that has infected international sailors isolating themselves in Garden City.

Chief Health Officer Dr. Ashley Bloomfield said this morning that Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking’s genomic tests had shown an exact match to the infection found in five of the Russian and Ukrainian sailors at the airport hotel. of Sudima in controlled isolation.

He said the results were related to the first health worker to become ill. Despite testing negative for Covid on Thursday, the woman became symptomatic on Saturday and tested positive for Covid-19.

A second health worker who works alongside the ill health worker who is now isolated at home with a teenager, has since tested positive.

Bloomfield said that the fact that genomic tests linked the case to the Sudima outbreak meant there was little fear of a new strain of Covid out of control in the community.

He said that while there were strict infection control measures within the facility, raids were always a possibility.

He added that he had a high level of confidence that the latest cases of infected healthcare workers posed no greater threat to others outside of the quarantine facility.

With the prospect of other fishermen heading to New Zealand, Bloomfield said it was important to review the episode before the men left their homeland and determine what happened to prevent a repeat of the situation that has left 31 men sick with Covid. .

He said that even though the men tested negative before their flight here, it was obvious that there was cross contamination with an infected person at some point after the tests were conducted.

Bloomfield’s comments follow a second person working at a managed isolation facility in Christchurch testing positive for Covid-19.

The Health Ministry said last night that the person is a close workplace contact for the case reported Monday – a health worker at the Sudima Christchurch Airport hotel who tested positive for the virus.

“As the person works at the facility and is not a returnee, he is treated as a community case,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Both this case and the one reported on Monday came into contact with international sailors in the performance of their duties, including some of the 31 sailors who tested positive for Covid-19 and who remain in quarantine.”

The second person to test positive was in isolation at his home in Christchurch, but would be transferred to a managed isolation facility. Meanwhile, the person who tested positive Monday remained in isolation at his home.

The person was tested as part of routine testing for hotel staff and tested negative Thursday. They are asymptomatic and the virus was only detected when they were retested as a close contact from Monday’s positive case. Yesterday they tested positive.

Two close contacts of the person have been identified: both household contacts who were to be evaluated and who would be isolated at home.

“At this stage, the ministry is not reporting the need to change the current focus,” the ministry said. “Both cases have a limited number of contacts and the incident is well contained.”