Two crew members have tested positive for Covid-19 on board the cargo ship thought to be the source of New Zealand's recent community infections.
All 19 crew of the Sofrana Surville were tested after a New Zealand port worker who had been on the ship tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday.
Queensland Health says: "Arrangements are now underway to transfer two crew who returned positive Covid-19 results to a hospital ashore."
The container ship remains at anchor and quarantined off Mooloolaba.
The ship was on passage between Noumea and Brisbane when the health alert was raised.
According to New Zealand's Ministry of Health, another crew member tested a weak positive, indicating a historical infection.
The port worker in New Zealand who originally tested positive for the virus had worked in both Auckland and Taranaki in the past two weeks, including spending a brief period of time on the Sofrana Surville.
"The worker was on board the Sofrana Surville on October 12 and 13 conducting maintenance work, while wearing personal protective equipment," the Ministry of Health says.
Using the Government’s Covid Tracer App is as important as ever over the long weekend, they said.
"The specific genome sequence of the virus he has contracted has not been seen in New Zealand before.
"Australian authorities are carrying out whole genome sequencing on the positive cases which will help further determine if the infected crew members are the likely source of the port worker’s infection."
Yesterday, it was announced two workmates of the man have also tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the cases potentially linked to the ship here to three.
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