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Government officials are assuring air passengers that they have not been exposed to Covid-19, as Wellington records its first case of the virus in months.
A man in his 50s arrived at Auckland Airport on an Air New Zealand flight from Los Angeles on August 18.
He continued to test positive on the 12th day of his stay at a border hotel in Wellington, and was one of nine new cases reported in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities on Tuesday.
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Five of those September 1 cases were spread by community transmission.
Five other community cases were also found, all with clear epidemiological or genomic links to the Auckland group, bringing the number of new cases Tuesday to 14.
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Wellington’s first Covid-19 case arrived in Auckland from Los Angeles on August 18, before being transported on a charter flight to the capital. (File photo)
MIQ Minister in Charge Megan Woods assured people that the man was not transported from Auckland to Wellington on a public flight.
“The person who moved, like [were] all the passengers who moved on that flight from Los Angeles would not have come on a commercial Air New Zealand flight, ”Woods said.
“They were charter flights that are airlift between incoming international flights and managed isolation facilities. So you don’t have to mix with the general public. “
Amber-Leigh Woolf / Things
The first bus arrives at the Grand Mercure in Wellington with passengers from South Korea for its 14-day isolation period (first published June 26).
Air Commodore Darryn Webb said the man would be treated in a separate area of a dual MIQ facility in the capital city.
A spokesperson for quarantine and managed isolation said the facility was at the Grand Mercure in Wellington.
“We have planned for situations like this and the Grand Mercure has a separate and secure dedicated floor where positive Covid-19 cases can be safely quarantined away from other returnees.”
At 11:59 p.m. Monday, 120 returnees were being cared for at the two Wellington MIQ facilities, a portion of 5,032 people housed at 32 facilities across the country.
ROSA WOODS / Things
Security at Wellington’s Grand Mercure, one of the city’s managed isolation facilities. (File photo)
Webb said that although Auckland had a separate quarantine facility, the Jet Park Hotel, “it doesn’t make sense” for small centers that house incoming New Zealanders to have border quarantine hotels only.
“In Christchurch and Wellington, we have arranged an assessment of each facility to determine the criteria for both quarantine and isolation and that is what we do,” said Webb.
Woods said there was an important safety element in the installation of dual-purpose facilities.
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Megan Woods, the minister in charge of MIQ, says passengers on commercial flights would not have been mixed up with Wellington’s first positive case in months, as it was carried on a charter flight.
“We did not want to organize airlifts for known Covid positive patients. It’s much safer to quarantine them in the area they’re already in, ”Woods said.
Of the other eight MIQ cases reported Tuesday, five were found in Christchurch and another three were picked up from Auckland border hotels.
All cases are now handled under “strict quarantine arrangements,” the Health Ministry said.
More than 44,000 people have passed through the MIQ facilities since March 26, including 24,997 since June 17.
