The NZ Nurses Organisation (NZNO) is hopeful of an “urgent resolution” to the concerns of their members working at Covid-19 managed isolation and quarantine facilities including masks not being properly fit tested.
NZO's associate professional services manager Kate Weston appeared on TVNZ1's Breakfast today, after a third staff member at a managed isolation facility tested positive for the virus on Friday.
The individual had most recently been swabbed as part of routine testing at Jet Park quarantine facility in Māngere, Auckland on November 3, and returned a negative test the next day. They were tested again after developing symptoms on Thursday, where they returned a positive result, the Ministry of Health said on Friday.
A contact of this person then travelled from Auckland to Wellington on Thursday evening (November 5) on Air New Zealand flight NZ 457, before testing positive for Covid-19.
Weston said the N-95 masks had to be fitted to a person’s face but that was not being done at MIQ facilities.
“We’ve become aware that not everyone is being put through this process which surprised us because we would have expected that to be an onboarding or orientation process,” she said.
Weston said there were other concerns, including the number of staff working at MIQ facilities, and the NZNO had taken them to the Counties Manukau DHB, the biggest employer in Auckland.
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