Covid 19 Coronavirus: What We Know About This Latest Outbreak

New details have emerged of the latest covid infections currently being treated in New Zealand.

The Health Ministry has revealed a breakdown of who is infected after a new outbreak among a group of Russian and Ukrainian sailors who recently arrived in the country, and a new community outbreak involving port personnel.

Yesterday was the largest increase in a 24-hour period of active cases since the August outbreak with 25 new cases.

It comes as concern rises over the revelation that one of the infected dockworkers contracted the disease after just three minutes of contact with a sick man.

Details about the movements of one of the infected dockworkers have also been released, with a popular west Auckland hotel at the center of a major public health alert.

Last night, all customers and staff who were at The Malt Greenhithe last Friday were told to get tested and isolate themselves until they received a negative result, after one of the dock workers who had since tested positive Due to Covid-19 he had spent around two and a half hours at the hotel.

Dock workers

This most recent community infection occurs after a 27-year-old man was working on a visiting ship, the Sofrana Surville.

He had traveled to New Plymouth on business in his own car, had been very secretive during his stay and wore full personal protective equipment to work aboard the ship. He returned to Auckland on Wednesday night and returned to work on Friday when he began to feel ill. He quit his job and was tested for Covid-19.

Yesterday, health authorities confirmed that the man had passed the virus on to a colleague in Auckland who was previously considered a casual contact.

The Health Ministry said the person had a very short exposure to the patient on Friday and was tested on Sunday with a negative result.

But he became symptomatic on Tuesday, was tested, and came back positive. Now his house was also being tested.

The third man to become ill was a close contact at the workplace of the marine electronics engineer and had been at the Auckland quarantine facility since Sunday.

Data from the Ministry of Health show that one of the men is 40 years old and the other 60 years old. They are both Auckland residents.

One of these men spent nearly three hours in a west Auckland hotel on Friday night.

Health authorities said detailed interviews and contact tracing were underway for the men, and officials were taking a very cautious approach to handling the cases.

Yesterday, the Taranaki District Board of Health announced that all close and casual contacts identified as at risk of having contact with the 27-year-old who worked for two days in Port Taranaki last week have returned negative results.

The sailors

According to a breakdown of confirmed cases linked to overseas fishing crews, all are men between the ages of 30 and 69.

Most of the newly arrived Russian and Ukrainian sailors who will work for New Zealand’s fishing companies this summer are in their 30s and 40s.

In the cases confirmed by the Ministry of Health, there are six men in their 40s, five in 30, three in 50 and one in 60.

On Tuesday 6,308 tests were conducted across the country.

That number is expected to rise dramatically today after the Auckland Regional Public Health Service issued a nightly alert advising people at The Malt pub in Greenhithe to get tested.

While most of the people in the pub between 7.30 and 10 pm were considered casual contacts, they were urged to get tested as soon as possible.

They were also asked to stay indoors and self-isolate until they received a negative test result.