Crew virus case confirmed

Person was negative on leaving New Zealand, but positive in Shanghai

Afamily of five is among new cases in managed isolation, and the Air New Zealand crew member who tested positive in China has been confirmed, the Ministry of Health says.

It comes as officials reveal eight new Covid-19 cases in managed isolation. There were no new community cases yesterday, with a total of 59 active cases in New Zealand.

Health officials are still investigating the circumstances of the Air NZ crew case. The worker and their colleagues arrived back in New Zealand yesterday morning and have gone into isolation.

“Further test samples were processed rapidly in our Auckland laboratory, and these have returned a positive result, so this is now considered a confirmed case. Our case numbers will report this case tomorrow,” the ministry said.

“A source investigation is under way and swabs have been sent to ESR in Wellington for genome sequencing, which is being done as quickly as possible.

“This person, seven close contacts and six casual contacts from the flight all arrived in New Zealand this morning and were all tested on arrival.

“This person and the close contacts are all in quarantine at our Auckland facility. So far we also have test results on some of the 11 close contacts, all of which are negative. All close contacts are in self isolation or managed isolation.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we have been following public health protocols and have already been investigating this case as if it were a confirmed case in New Zealand.”

Contact tracing is also ongoing in Auckland to work out where the staff member went in the two weeks before the Shanghai flight. Three close contacts have been identified so far and another two are under investigation.

Dr Jemma Geoghegan, a virologist at Otago University said it was difficult to know how someone got the virus when there was no known contact with anyone who had it.

The crew member tested negative before leaving on the trip, but tested positive once the plane had arrived in Shanghai. The plane’s crew returned on a cargo-only flight from Shanghai and were separated from the person who tested positive.

Auckland Regional Public Health Service has released information on locations the person visited before leaving the country.