Plea to swab all returning travellers
A New Zealander who travelled through a country she described as a coronavirus ‘‘hotbed’’ is asking why all new arrivals are not being tested for the virus.
Aucklander Alison Perkins is on day 14 of her managed isolation in a hotel in the CBD, having returned home from Mexico.
To get home she travelled from Cancun through the United States, where nearly 1.5 million people have contracted the virus. This included an overnight stay and 13-hour wait in an airport.
Although Perkins is symptomfree and ‘‘feels great’’, she said she ‘‘found it weird they’re not just testing everyone’’ returning to New Zealand, given that people can be asymptomatic carriers.
‘‘Though I tried to take lots of precautions, such as wearing a mask and practising good hand hygiene, there were lots of opportunities [on the trip home] to become infected,’’ she said.
Perkins said there were 150 arrivals to the hotel on Saturday and nearly 60 more on Sunday.
While all guests at the hotel had been practising physical distancing, they were using the same lifts and were going on daily walks together, she said.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson said every traveller entering New Zealand was screened for
Covid-19 on arrival. If a person was symptomatic on arrival, they would be tested and placed in a quarantine facility for 14 days.
Those without symptoms – like Perkins – would be placed in an approved managed isolation facility for 14 days.
New arrivals were contacted daily to find out if they have any symptoms. Those with symptoms were tested, the spokesperson said.
Even though there was capacity to test all those going into isolation, ‘‘it is better to test at the right time in the illness – which is when they have symptoms’’, the spokesperson said.
The diagnostic test was ‘‘most useful’’ with those who were symptomatic as it depended on being able to pick up virus particles.
Even if a traveller was tested and had a negative result, they would still need to stay in managed isolation, the spokesperson said.