There are no new cases of Covid-19 to report in the community today, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.
Test results for all but one of the port workers in Tauranga who came into contact with Covid-19-positive crew members from the Rio De La Plata container ship have also returned negative tests.
One person is being retested as the result was "inconclusive" but considered low risk, the Ministry of Health said. The remaining 109 have returned negative tests.
The contact happened while staff were unloading cargo in shifts when the ship was berthed at the Port of Tauranga last Wednesday to Saturday. Eleven of the 21 crew of the Rio De La Plata had contracted Covid-19.
The two pilots, the one who sailed Rio De La Plata into port and the other who took it out, have both returned negative results. They will remain in isolation for a full 14-day cycle.
The local public health unit has now confirmed 72 port workers boarded Rio De La Plata while it was docked in Tauranga. All have returned negative Covid-19 tests, apart from the one person with inconclusive results. Some of that group is also being retested.
The remaining group that were tested included people who were on the wharf but didn’t board the Rio De La Plata. All of these tests came back negative.
The Ministry of Health said they were told by local public health staff that port workers followed all infection prevention controls and PPE protocol during their duties.
The Rio De La Plata remains off the shore of Tauranga. Crew members aboard it remain asymptomatic.
A decision about what will happen to the vessel will be made “in coming days”, the Ministry of Health said.
“Public health staff have determined that the risk posed to the Tauranga community by the Rio De La Plata Covid-19 cases is low, and the steps taken to date are appropriately managing any risks.
“For this reason, there are currently no restrictions on events in Tauranga,” the Ministry said.
Health officials are also hosting question and answer sessions for port workers to encourage them to get vaccinated .
The Covid-19 Response Minister says misinformation is behind low vaccination rates among port workers.
Meanwhile, there are three new cases to report in managed isolation.
The first case arrived on August 5 from Singapore, via Malaysia. They tested positive on day three of their MIQ stay in Auckland.
The second case also arrived on August 5 directly from Singapore. They also tested positive on day three of their stay in an Auckland MIQ facility.
The third case tested positive on arrival from Australia on August 7. They are in an MIQ facility in Auckland.
The 11 crew from the Rio De La Plata who contracted the virus have also been added to today’s tally.
One previously reported case has now recovered. The two new cases that were reported yesterday have now been reclassified as “under investigation”.
It brings the number of active Covid-19 cases in New Zealand to 37. Since the start of the pandemic, the country has had 2546 cases.
Since January 1, there have been 116 historical cases, out of a total of 728 cases.
Yesterday, 3343 Covid-19 tests were processed around the country. The total number of tests processed by laboratories to date is 2,529,030.
The NZ COVID Tracer app now has 2,912,590 registered users.
Users have scanned posters 320,463,470 times and have created 12,595,441 manual diary entries.
There were 436,885 poster scans in the past 24 hours to midday yesterday.
Vaccination rollout update
As of midnight, more than 2.24 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have now been administered. Of these, 1.41 million are first doses and 830,000 are second doses.
More than 124,000 Māori have received their first vaccination. Of this group, about 77,000 have also had their second jab.
Almost 85,000 doses have been administered to Pasifika. Of this group, around 52,600 have also received their second doses.
Yesterday, 38,154 vaccine doses were administered. This was made up of 26,576 first doses and 11,578 second doses.
SHARE ME