Covid 19 coronavirus: new community case in Christchurch

There is a new case of Covid-19 in the Christchurch community, says the Ministry of Health.

It ends 10 days in a row with no community cases of the virus in New Zealand. The Ministry announced the new case shortly after 8:00 p.m. today.

The case is a staff member working at the Christchurch managed isolation facility, where a group of international sailors have been housed. A total of 31 positive Covid cases are now linked to a group.

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They are among 440 fishermen from Russia and Ukraine, 270 of whom will go out on three Independent Fisheries boats next month.

The new case was tested as part of routine testing for Sudima staff at Christchurch airport. They returned a negative test on Thursday, October 29.

However, on Saturday they developed symptoms and requested a new test on Sunday, obtaining a positive result that was received today.

“The person is now isolated at home and reports that he has been careful to isolate himself as soon as he developed symptoms,” the ministry says.

The first of the international sailors should have completed his administered isolation tomorrow morning, but will extend it for at least 24 hours as an additional precautionary measure.

The ministry said full details of the case and actions taken in response will be provided at a press conference at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow.

Precautionary measures for international sailors include additional tests: up to four for some people and an already prolonged stay in controlled isolation.

This is the third time that Covid-19 has resurfaced in the community,

New Zealand went 102 days without a case until August, when a group from Auckland forced the city into a two-week Level 3 lockdown.

Then in October, after 22 days without a new case in the community, a marine engineer tested positive after performing work on a ship in Auckland, the Sofrana Surville.

This afternoon, four cases of Covid-19 were reported in controlled isolation. One of them, an international sailor who was staying at Sudima in Christchurch, detected in tests on the 15th as a close contact of a case on the 6th.

The other three people were a person in an Auckland quarantine facility, who arrived on October 19 from Milan via Singapore and tested positive for routine tests around the 12th.

Another person arrived from London via Singapore on October 28 and tested positive for routine tests around day 3. They are now in the Auckland quarantine facility.

And the fourth case was detected in managed isolation in Auckland, after being granted permission to reunite with a family member recently arrived from abroad. The family member has been previously registered in our positive case totals. Today’s case will be recorded as an import related case.

Last month, Air Commodore Darryn Webb said that Newstalk ZB staff at the Sudima Hotel took infection prevention measures including physical distancing, regular and thorough cleaning, use of PPE, basic hygiene practices and daily health checks, he said. Webb.

He hoped that the number of positive cases within the group of fishermen would increase.

“I think it’s logical to expect that. We knew in planning that places like Russia are high risk.”

Webb said the processes in place around testing at the border were robust.

“We have an exclusive use facility for these fishermen. Part of the process from the beginning is that we know they come from a high risk area, so we provide a single location.”

He said there was a 24-hour delay while the aircraft worked on its process in Moscow and the fishermen were gathered there for 48 hours and then en route for 18 hours.

That period of time provided an opportunity for the virus to spread.

In August, a Rydges hotel maintenance worker contracted Covid-19 from a guest at the managed isolation facility.

His strain matched that of a host who flew in from the United States before testing positive for Covid-19 and then being transferred to a quarantine facility.

Chief Health Officer Dr. Ashley Bloomfield later said investigations had revealed the worker used an elevator “very little” after the woman.