Virus arrives at NZ and Australian ports
THE anticipated second wave of the coronavirus is not sparing the maritime industry as both Australia and New Zealand find themselves dealing with cases of the virus aboard ships arriving in their ports.
Australia has two ships in Fremantle with the virus and this comes after Western Australia had just cleared the second of two ships also with cases of the virus.
Health officials in New Zealand launched a complicated contact tracing effort in the past few days to resolve the origins of the case they are managing.
Most cases of the virus in New Zealand are coming into the country from overseas versus community spread and testing on the current situation confirms that this case came into the country from overseas.
The situation began when a marine electronics engineer working as a contractor to ships arriving in New Zealand notified health authorities that he was experiencing symptoms of the virus.
Test results on October 16 confirmed this individual as positive starting the tracing program.
New Zealand health officials determined the engineer had done contract work on a New Zealand vessel which they doubt is the source of the infection and then in Auckland worked a vessel the
which has been identified as the likely source of the case.
The engineer worked aboard the
a smaller 12,500 DWT container ship able to carry 1000 TEU, on October 12 and 13 in the port of Auckland.
At the same time, eight crew members arrived from the Philippines and four departed the ship after having been aboard since March.
The vessel departed Auckland making a stop in Noumea, New Caledonia, before proceeding toward Brisbane, Australia before being identified for investigation.