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STACY SQUIRES / Stuff
Covid managed the isolation facilities at the Sudima Hotel, near Christchurch Airport, where the fishermen have stayed.
There is a new community case of Covid-19 in Christchurch, confirmed the Ministry of Health.
The case, reported to the ministry on Monday afternoon, is a staff member working at a facility in Christchurch where international sailors are in isolation and administered quarantine, understood as the Sudima Hotel, near the Christchurch airport.
In a statement released Monday night, the ministry said the person was tested as part of routine tests for personnel at the facility and tested negative on Thursday, October 29.
On Saturday they developed symptoms. They looked for a new test on Sunday and received a positive result on Monday.
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The person was now isolated at home and had done so as soon as he developed symptoms, according to the statement.
The first of the international sailors, who were due to complete their administered isolation on Tuesday morning, will have their administered isolation extended for at least 24 hours as an additional precautionary measure.
The new community case is the first on the South Island since late July, when a person who later tested positive for Covid-19 in South Korea visited Christchurch. The person arrived in Christchurch from Auckland at 5.30pm on Monday, July 20. They left on an international flight at around 11 am the next day, bound for South Korea via Singapore.
CONTROL POINT / RNZ
Russian fishing crews believed to be at the center of a covid outbreak at an isolation facility tested negative and spent fourteen days isolated in their own homes before boarding a charter flight to New Zealand.
Those precautionary measures have included additional tests, up to four tests for some people, and an already prolonged stay in controlled isolation.
Full details of the new case and actions taken in response will be provided at the press conference at 1:00 pm Tuesday, according to the statement.
The Health Ministry said 31 international sailors had tested positive in controlled isolation so far.
The Sudima Hotel is being used exclusively by Russian and Ukrainian fishermen, who arrived on a charter flight paid for by three large fishing companies.
There are 235 of the men in the Sudima Hotel. The first cases at the facility were confirmed on October 20, when the facility closed.
The sailors were brought into the country to work on fishing boats run by Sealord, Independent Fisheries, and Maruha Nichiro. The three companies are covering the costs of the quarantine, which is expected to be around $ 1 million.
New Zealand’s deep-sea fishing industry has been hit hard by Covid-19 travel restrictions because it relies on foreign workers to man ships.
A group of seven community cases in September were linked to a person who came out of quarantine in Christchurch after contracting the virus. An investigation found that the most likely source of infection was a garbage can at the quarantine hotel.
Three port workers tested positive for Covid-19 in October and a healthcare worker working at Auckland’s quarantine facility, Jet Park, tested positive in mid-September.
The largest community group since the first closure ended in June is Auckland’s August group, which is still open and so far includes 179 cases.
