The vessel with two positive COVID-19 mariners on board won't be returning to Port Taranaki.
The two positive cases were announced on Tuesday night. The mariners are part of a group of nine who arrived in Auckland on Monday before being transferred onto a deep-sea fishing vessel in New Plymouth. They had all returned negative pre-departure COVID-19 tests.
The Ministry of Health said earlier on Wednesday that the ship the mariners are isolating on would return to the port. Once there, the two positive mariners and 13 other crew would disembark and go into managed isolation and quarantine.
But Port Taranaki confirmed the boat won't be returning to the port, with chief executive Guy Roper saying they hadn't been informed of the Ministry of Health's plans.
"Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and our response to it, the health and safety of our staff, other port users and the Taranaki community has been our priority," Roper says.
"We have followed all the Ministry of Health protocols including those for crew transfers, however we believe having the vessel return with known COVID-19 cases aboard is a completely different scenario and puts our staff and the community at a higher risk."
Along with safety, Roper says the need to consider staff resourcing and customers is another reason why they decided the vessel won't be returning.
"We have a limited number of pilots, and the pilot on duty for the vessel's return would likely be required to self-isolate for a period and therefore be unavailable for routine cargo vessels," he says.
"There is also no certainty about how long the fishing vessel would need to remain berthed without appropriate manning."
Three close contacts of the two positive mariners are fully vaccinated, and they are a bus driver who drove the crew from Auckland to New Plymouth, a port pilot, and a customs officer.
The Ministry of Health says all three were wearing PPE when they interacted with the mariners. The bus driver also wore an N95 mask for the entire journey. The driver has gone to an Auckland quarantine facility and the port pilot and customs officer are self-isolating. They were due to be tested on Wednesday.
The mariners arrived in New Zealand on a red flight, meaning everyone who was on that plane will be in managed isolation for 14 days. Everyone else on that flight has tested negative and will still have routine day five and 12 tests.
The remaining seven mariners have returned negative COVID-19 test results and complied with full infection prevention control protocols during the drive from Auckland Airport to Port Taranaki.
Genome sequencing is underway to determine which variant the mariners have.
Health officials say these cases present a low risk to the public and there are still no locations of interest.
