Covid 19 coronavirus: Three new Covid cases at MIQ, exercise travel stopped after hotel transmission case

People in managed isolation at a central Auckland hotel will be prevented from taking buses to exercise venues amid investigations into the transmission of Covid-19 at MIQ.

It was revealed yesterday that the Grand Mercure in central Auckland was under investigation following a possibility of transmission within the facility with hundreds of people who had completed isolation administered in the past 10 days and were asked to redo try and isolate themselves.

Chief Health Officer Dr. Ashley Bloomfield said efforts were underway to contact the 250 people who had left since March 10, while 190 people had been contacted as of 9 a.m. today.

The chief of managed isolation and quarantine, Brigadier Jim Bliss, said an investigation was now beginning at the Grand Mercure and the off-site exercise yards. He said a positive person was on one of those exercise outings. Bus trips to the off-site exercise range had now stopped.

One of the infected traveled by bus to an exercise field with others from different facilities.

Those still there face a 24-hour hiatus from using the bus to get to the exercise areas.

Meanwhile, there are three new Covid-19 cases at MIQ and none in the community.

At the other facility being investigated, Bloomfield said how cleaner Grand Millennium hired Covid was still being investigated. The household contact who initially tested weak positive has given a second negative covid test.

All close contacts of the cleaner also returned negative results.

Fourteen people had their controlled isolation time extended for another 14 days.

Meanwhile, about 5,000 doses of vaccination were expected to be administered throughout the North Island this weekend, including in hotels and medical clinics.

Now about 50,000 doses had been administered nationwide, Bloomfield said.

Earlier this year, three people in managed isolation at Auckland’s Pullman hotel caught Covid-19 in three separate incidents.

The hotel was temporarily closed for decontamination and improvements after three returnees fell ill after completing their mandatory 14-day stay in isolation, raising fears that the infection has spread throughout the community.

At the time, Bliss confirmed that genome sequencing confirmed that all three cases had the variant first identified in South Africa.

A report on the episode in February indicated that poor ventilation in the hotel corridors contributed to the spread.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment was also conducting an internal investigation into the bus journeys made by returnees to determine what happened in this case and what improvements could be made to strengthen their processes.