Case caught before flight

distance, but this had been difficult when their primary focus was helping the elderly couple.

An Air NZ spokeswoman said an ‘‘unwell passenger’’ was offloaded from the Blenheim to Wellington flight on March 24 and St John was notified. No other passengers had boarded the flight, she said.

‘‘The aircraft received a thorough clean before the flight departed Blenheim,’’ the spokeswoman said.

Airport staff isolated the couple in part of the terminal.

St John Marlborough territory manager Murray Neal said ambulance crew assessed the patient and sought further advice from their clinical triage team.

‘‘The patient’s symptoms were mild and would not usually warrant an ambulance transfer,’’ he said.

‘‘The crew was correctly advised by the clinical support officer that transportation by ambulance was not appropriate and the patient should contact Healthline for further advice,’’ Neal said.

The couple left the airport in a taxi. Holtum said the motorhome had been left blocking the drop-off area and front entrance, so he ‘‘bombed’’ it with ‘‘hospital grade disinfectant’’ and drove it around the back.

‘‘We didn’t hear anything for three weeks,’’ Holtum said.

‘‘We presumed he wasn’t ill. No-one contacted us.’’

A few days later, Holtum cleared the motorhome of groceries, collected bags of rubbish, belongings, and emptied the grey water.

Stuff reported on March 25 that a man in his 80s was confirmed as Marlborough’s fifth coronavirus case.

Three weeks after the incident at Marlborough Airport, Holtum received a call from Wilderness Motorhome Rentals, who told him the man had tested positive.

A Wilderness spokeswoman said they found out their guest tested positive for coronavirus 10 days after he left the motorhome at Marlborough Airport.

On March 25, two weeks into their month-long trip, the guest contacted Wilderness to say he was unwell and unable to continue.

He made contact again 10 days later to say he had been diagnosed with Covid-19 and was self-isolating, the spokeswoman said.

Members of Wilderness team who had dealt with guests were tested for coronavirus as soon as they were made aware of the case. All the test results came back negative, she said.

As soon as Holtum found out about the man’s positive test, he immediately drove to the Community Based Testing Centre in Horton Park, Blenheim.

He was told by a doctor at the clinic, that if three weeks had gone by without displaying symptoms, he would not require a test. He was refused a test.

The Air New Zealand staffer who had sold the couple tickets was also not made aware of the positive test.

‘‘We look back in hindsight and think we had a near miss ... a bullet whizzed past our ears.’’

Holtum thought a ‘‘courtesy call’’ to make them aware of the positive test would have been appropriate.

The UK couple picked up a different rental car from Marlborough Airport about a week ago, drove down to Christchurch Airport and caught a repatriation flight back to the United Kingdom, Holtum said.

Their Wilderness motorhome was still parked at Marlborough Airport.

Holtum said he was contacted by health authorities on Monday suggesting the airport could be included in the asymptomatic testing programme being rolled out across the country. The tests would be open to airport staff and their families, he said.