COVID19 New Zealand confirms 2nd COVID-19 case of managed isolation worker
Wellington/Xinhua: New Zealand Ministry of Health confirmed on Tuesday that a second worker at the Sudima hotel managed isolation facility in Christchurch was tested positive for COVID-19.
It was the second managed isolation worker tested with the virus after the first one was confirmed on Monday, who was a member of the health team working at the Sudima Christchurch Airport isolation facility where a group of more than 200 international mariners are in managed isolation and quarantine, according to the Ministry of Health.
Among them, a total of 31 foreign mariners quarantined in the facility have been tested positive of COVID-19. These fishers came as seasonal workers to New Zealand to help with the fishing season.
The second case is a close workplace contact of the case reported on Monday, said a ministry statement.
As both workers work at the Christchurch facility and are not returnees, they are treated as community cases.
Both cases came into contact with the international mariners in the course of their duties, including some of the 31 mariners who have tested positive with COVID-19 and who remain in quarantine.
Tuesday's community case was tested as part of the routine testing for staff in the facility and returned a negative test on Oct. 29. The person has been asymptomatic and was retested after being identified as being a close work contact of the case reported on Monday and a positive result was received on Tuesday, said a ministry statement.
The person is now in isolation at home and transfer is being arranged to a managed isolation facility, it said.
The international mariners, completing their managed isolation on Tuesday, have had their managed isolation extended for at least a further 48 hours as an additional precautionary measure while further information from the current round of staff testing is gathered, according to the ministry.
Earlier on Tuesday, New Zealand reported four imported cases of COVID-19 at managed isolation facilities, who were travelers arriving overseas.
Eleven cases are now considered recovered, meaning the country's total number of active cases is 76, and New Zealand's total number of confirmed cases is 1,613.
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