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The crew of three ships at the center of an investigation into the source of a worker on the ship’s Covid-19 positive result is or will be tested for the virus.
The Health Ministry said the Moana Chief’s crew, Sofrana Surville and Ken Rei, all linked to the marine electronics technician who tested positive, were being examined or being fixed.
Testing of the New Zealand-based crew on the New Zealand ship Moana Chief would take place on Wednesday, a spokeswoman said.
The ship is considered unlikely to be the source of the man’s infection.
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Chief Moana was being transferred from Marsden Point to Tauranga.
Australian authorities were conducting tests and serology on the 19 crew members of the Sofrana Surville, suspected of being the source of the man’s infection.
Australian authorities would share the results when received and would perform genome sequencing on any positive results obtained.
The ship arrived in Brisbane last night and New Zealand officials are following up with public health officials in Australia on the health of the people on board.
“Our investigation of the ship’s activities while in New Zealand found that there are 11 people we believe had contact with the ship while in Auckland. All are being followed, tested and isolated if appropriate ”.
Toi Te Ora, the public health unit in the Bay of Plenty, was continuing to work to identify the people who boarded the ship while it was in Tauranga.
The ministry said the Ken Rei remains anchored off Napier.
RYAN ANDERSON / Stuff
A case of controlled isolation was detected in New Zealand on Tuesday (File photo).
Officials are determining with the ship’s owners the next step for the Ken Rei, along with public health units and port authorities.
Trial arrangements will be made once a decision has been made on future moves, the ministry said.
“We continue to conduct daily health checks for the 21 crew members on board. They are all currently fine and are not reporting any Covid-19 symptoms, and have been symptom-free for seven days. “
So far, there are no known cases related to the man working on ships around New Zealand who tested positive for the virus on Friday.
Health Director General Dr Ashley Bloomfield moved to allay public fears of another outbreak on Monday, saying the new case in the community was a new “border raid” and was not linked to the August Auckland group. nor to any other previous case.
Bloomfield said sequencing of the case’s genome had been completed.
“It fits the scenario that this case is a ‘border incursion’ case, rather than a community case of unknown origin,” he said.
“Genome sequencing results show that this Covid-19 strain is not a type that we have seen previously in New Zealand and is not linked to any existing cases in New Zealand.
“Particularly reassuring is that it is not related to the recent Auckland outbreak or other recent cases.”
On Tuesday, a new case of coronavirus was detected in controlled isolation.
The case arrived in the country on October 7 from Kenya via Dubai.
The ministry said the case was in a managed isolation facility in Auckland.
However, after testing positive around day 12 of their stay, they were transferred to Auckland’s quarantine facility, Jet Park.
The total number of New Zealand cases was 1,531.
Five previously reported cases had been recovered, bringing the total number of active cases to 33.
30 close community contacts were identified in relation to the dockworker’s case, all of whom had been contacted and were in isolation.
All test results returned by close and casual contacts from the case announced on Sunday have been negative to date.
Labs completed 2,715 tests Monday, bringing the total to 1,034,603.
