Covid 19 coronavirus: International crews arriving in Auckland and Tauranga ports now face mandatory isolation

Two of the country’s largest ports now require all international crews to spend 14 days in managed isolation, and they want other ports to follow suit.

The ports of Auckland and Tauranga made the decision despite Health Minister Chris Hipkins saying today that this would mean that several ships would not reach New Zealand.

Hipkins told RNZ that all crew members entering the country could soon be required to undergo testing for Covid 19, but he has yet to decide whether to subject all shipping crews to managed isolation.

The current situation is that crewmembers flying to New Zealand are taken directly to the port to join their ship if it leaves port that day, after being picked up by a vehicle with a driver in PPE equipment.

Ports of Auckland Communications General Manager Matt Ball said the 14-day managed isolation requirement was introduced last week, after it became clear that the likely source for the current pool of dockworkers was eight Filipino sailors who passed through the port without being examined.

Ball said the port has had a positive response from its shipping companies regarding the requirement.

He said it reassured crews and shipping companies that there were no infected people on board.

A spokesperson for the port of Tauranga said the company last night sent a warning notice to freight forwarders requiring international crew members joining a ship in Tauranga to complete 14 days in administered isolation and test negative. of Covid-19.

The port understood that this created logistical challenges for its shipping line customers, according to the notice.

“However, we cannot risk having to close the port due to the operating personnel being quarantined.”

The Ministry of Health did not answer specific questions. However, in a statement it said that it regularly reviewed the Covid-19 strategy to make sure it was still suitable for its elimination strategy; this included reviewing what the testing program was like for dockworkers and crew members.

Health officials were working closely with border agencies on how to limit the risk of Covid-19, he said.

Immigration New Zealand said that between August 10 and October 26, 466 people were approved a critical purpose visa to travel to New Zealand as ‘replacement cargo ship crew’. He said 324 of those people have arrived in New Zealand and 142 have yet to arrive.

Today marked six consecutive days with no Covid cases in the community, but health authorities are still wondering how the virus once again slipped across New Zealand’s borders.

It is the longest run of no new cases in the community since the marine engineer tested positive for the virus on October 16.

Chief Health Officer Dr. Ashley Bloomfield announced yesterday that all close and casual contacts by the engineer had tested negative for the virus.

Overall, nearly 40,000 tests have been conducted since the case was announced.

This was despite the fact that two of the man’s colleagues, who also boarded the foreign ship Sofrana Surville, tested positive and visited a variety of Auckland venues, including Malt Bar in Greenhithe, on Friday night, along with a gym, a bank and several stores.

While the possibility of an outbreak would hold up to two full incubation cycles after October 16 (28 days), so far it appears that the city may have dodged a bullet that could have plunged it back into the blockade.

Infectious disease expert Professor David Murdoch said the main takeaway from the swift containment of the cluster was that the system is working as intended.

“It has been detected quickly, we have managed to find the source; unlike the previous outbreak, there has been rigorous contact tracing and genome sequencing.”

The fact that an infected person had been in a crowded bar on a Friday night, which could have been a “super spreader” event and had had no repercussions so far was not necessarily just luck, Murdoch said.

“The exact details are not known, but it appears that they had only been exposed that morning, so it is quite early and could be the reason why they were not infectious.”

Only two new cases of Covid-19 were announced today, both detected at the border.