Solving cleaner case ‘huge challenge’

More frequent border testing and a stand-down period before cleaners can board an international flight after it lands are being mooted as further layers of protection against Covid-19.

The suggestions follow the case of the Auckland airport worker who appears to have caught the virus after cleaning a plane that arrived on April 10 with a passenger who later tested positive.

An investigation is under way into how the cleaner became infected and it remains unclear whether they had any person-to-person contact with any passengers.

“It’s a huge challenge to figure out how they got infected because they were doing all the right things with PPE and being vaccinated,” Otago University epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker said.

The cleaner might have brushed past the passenger, who had flown from Ethiopia via Dubai, on an air bridge, or in the aisle inside the cabin.

Leaving the plane empty for a time before it gets serviced might help, Baker said.

“I’m not aware of any recorded examples of aerosols being left in an environment and then infecting someone after a significant delay.”

There was also merit in more frequent testing of relevant workers, he said.

The cleaner, who works for Menzies, is the latest of 15 border-related cases since July last year. She worked three shifts during the infectious period, and 17 of her 25 close contacts are workplace contacts. Seven of them have so far tested negative, one is being followed up, and others will be tested on day five.

No further locations of interest have been identified beyond those already released: Westfield St Luke’s Mall foodcourt, Bunnings New Lynn, and Movenpick Dominion Rd, all on Saturday, April 17.

Baker also implored the Government to set up a system where it could monitor highrisk border workers, including when they are tested, and when they should be. “You’re flying blind if you don’t.”

The Government can datamatch across two registers to see when the 4500-strong MIQ workforce is at work and how often they are tested. But the Government is reliant on employers to ensure compliance for the 10,000-odd extra border workers who are legally obliged to be tested O¯ regularly.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said there had not been a system-wide audit of the hundreds of employers at the border to check compliance. Asked why not, he said: “Just the practicalities and the potential expense . . . Ultimately the legal requirement is clear. People need to follow the law here.”

He is writing to the CEOs of all the agencies working at the border to remind them of their legal obligations.

Hipkins encouraged those who lived with border workers to get vaccinated — so far only 7478 out of 50,000 household contacts of border workers had had two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

There have been 183,351 doses of the Pfizer vaccine administered as of Tuesday, including 140,580 who had had one shot and 42,771 people — including Hipkins himself — who have had two doses.

He defended the airport protocols that allowed the cleaner to work in the airport’s red zone one day and then the green zone on a different day. “They go home . . . and they are free to move about in their communities,” he said.

There was one new case of Covid-19 reported yesterday in managed isolation, a traveller from Switzerland via Qatar.