Aged care facilities on alert throughout New Zealand
Aged care facilities on alert throughout New Zealand
New Zealand officials are scrambling to trace the source of an outbreak of the coronavirus, reporting 13 new cases in Auckland on Thursday, including a person who visited an aged residential care facility in Waikato.
The cases are being treated as a cluster and would now be moved into a quarantine facility instead of allowing them to recover at home, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said.
He declined to name the aged care home as some residents and their families were still being informed. He said the person who visited the site, did so the day before they started showing symptoms.
The visit was to a family member and the person visiting also had contact with several staff, who were being tested. All aged care facilities in the country were currently closed for visitation.
The discovery of four infected family members in Auckland two days ago shocked a country that had not recorded a case of COVID-19 for more than three months, raising some criticism of the government's handling of the crisis.
These 13 new cases are all linked to the family of four. They are a family member, colleagues, and family members of the colleagues
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No definite source of the infection has been established, hence the need to isolate them in a quarantine facility, Bloomfield said.
The most likely scenario remains that it may have entered through a managed isolation or quarantine facility, though genome sequencing of the outbreak has not yet been linked it to a facility.
Bloomfield raised the possibility on Wednesday that the virus had arrived in New Zealand via freight, given one of the infected family members works in a cool store that takes imported frozen goods from overseas.
On Thursday, he said that was considered "a low possibility", but did not detail other potential sources.
On Tuesday, officials in the Chinese port city of Yantai said the virus had been found on packaging that arrived from the port city of Dalian, where there had been a recent outbreak.
Some prominent local health experts suggested it was more likely the virus had been quietly spreading in Auckland for weeks, infecting potentially dozens of people.
If the freight theory is proven, it could have profound implications for international trade flows.
The new infections bring the total number of active cases to 36.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has swiftly reimposed tight movement restrictions in Auckland and social distancing measures across the rest of the country, echoing her early response to the pandemic, which was praised for its apparent effectiveness.
On Tuesday, officials in the Chinese port city of Yantai said the virus had been found on packaging that arrived from the port city of Dalian, where there had been a recent outbreak.
Some prominent local health experts suggested it was more likely the virus had been quietly spreading in Auckland for weeks, infecting potentially dozens of people.
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If the freight theory is proven, it could have profound implications for international trade flows.
The new infections bring the total number of active cases to 36.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has swiftly reimposed tight movement restrictions in Auckland and social distancing measures across the rest of the country, echoing her early response to the pandemic, which was praised for its apparent effectiveness.
With an election scheduled just weeks away, Ardern is facing criticism from the major opposition party for the decision to resume lockdown measures.
The NZ National Party wants the September election to be pushed back to November or even next year. Ardern has said she will make a decision on the poll before Monday. Judith Collins, the leader of the National Party said: "It is simply unsustainable to expect there to be a fair and just election at a time when opposition parties are not free to campaign."
Parliament was meant to be dissolved on Wednesday to allow the election to take place, but the centre-Left leader held off the move until Monday to monitor how the crisis evolves.
The Prime Minister's Labour Party is expected to win next month's ballot. It currently dominates the polls on 55 per cent, with the opposition National Party on 28 per cent.
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