5 more Covid cases aboard container ship

CREW members of the Mattina container ship who tested negative for Covid19 will be transferred to a quarantine facility in Christchurch following five more positive cases aboard the vessel.

A Ministry of Health spokesman said along with those cases there was one historical case of Covid19 reported yesterday among recent returnees in managed isolation facilities. The five new cases aboard

Mattina are addition to the nine previously reported cases aboard the ship.

One further result was under investigation and three more had evidence of past infection and therefore were not deemed infectious at this stage, the spokesman said.

The three remaining crew had returned negative tests, he said.

Crew members who tested positive would remain quarantined on board.

Those who returned a negative test yesterday would be transported to a Christchurch quarantine facility using a managed transport plan, which included the use of infection prevention and control (IPC) protocols.

It was safer to manage the smaller group of negative cases by taking them off the ship, the spokesman said.

Two crew members who were transferred to hospital yesterday after testing positive had since returned to Mattina following a comprehensive assessment, which showed they did not require hospital care.

All infection prevention and control measures were in place, including the appropriate use of personal protective equipment for the hospital transfers.

Results of whole genome sequencing from nine crew members of Mattina show they had the Delta variant, which was not linked to any previously confirmed cases in New Zealand.

The number of active cases in New Zealand is 62 and the sevenday rolling average of new cases detected at the border is six.

There were no cases of Covid19 to report in the community yesterday.