[ad_1]
Prevention measures and the use of PPE at Auckland’s Jet Park Hotel are being reviewed after a worker tested positive, the first case in the five and a half months that the quarantine facility has been operating.
The worker was one of two new cases of Covid-19 reported today by the Ministry of Health. The other is an imported case in managed isolation.
The worker is a healthcare worker who tested negative last week, but tested positive this week in the first week of routine weekly testing of Jet Park workers.
Air Commodore Darryn Webb said the worker was examined Friday morning and that the health worker did not work anywhere other than Jet Park.
The Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) team is now reviewing personnel records, swipe card data, and CCTV footage to map the person’s movements in recent days.
Five household contacts connected to the health worker are isolated in their home and are being tested today.
“This case is still being investigated to determine whether the infection came from the community or the quarantine facility, although at this stage no obvious links to other cases in the community have been established,” the ministry said.
Sequencing of the health worker’s Covid-19 genome is underway and results are expected tomorrow.
The protocols and procedures are now being reviewed twice at the facility, where there is an increased risk of infection.
“Personnel at the facility who were considered close contacts have been removed and a thorough cleaning of staff areas at the facility has been completed,” the ministry said.
“All personnel at the quarantine facility are being retested over the next 48 hours. That process started last night with 48 staff members screened and more are being tested today.”
“Any identified close contacts will be required to be isolated and tested,” Webb said.
Preventive control measures will now be reviewed, including the use of PPE.
The returnee in managed isolation arrived from South Africa on September 8 and remains in quarantine in Canterbury.
There are 33 cases in the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship Church group and 15 cases in the bereavement events subgroup; 98 percent of the church congregation has now been tested, as have 98 percent of those who attend mourning events.
There are three people in the hospital with Covid-19 – one is isolated in a ward of Auckland City hospital. Two are in the ICU, North Shore and Waikato hospitals.
The number of active cases is now 97.
Of these, 39 are imported cases at MIQ facilities and 58 are community cases.
7,211 tests were processed yesterday.
[ad_2]
