Health Minister Chris Hipkins has been advised the latest community outbreak of COVID-19 in New Zealand has been traced back to a ship that arrived from Australia.
"Good news today," Hipkins told reporters in Parliament on Friday, as he passed on information he had received on Thursday night from Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield.
"Last night I was advised by the Director-General of Health that the genomic sequencing results from the testing of the Sofrana Surville workers in Australia reveals that there is a match with the test results from the maritime workers in New Zealand who had tested positive.
"There is one mutation off, which would suggest that that is the source of infection for this most recent group of workers that we have been dealing with, and it means that it's highly unlikely that there's another chain of transmission out there that we're unaware of.
"So the most likely source of infection is the workers going onto the Sofrana Surville being infected there. That's good news because it suggests that we have managed to capture that information early and that we've managed to get this new cluster contained very quickly and that the risk of it spreading further undetected is relatively low."
Several community cases of COVID-19 were announced by the Ministry of Health last week that were linked to a port worker who had tested positive the previous weekend.
Infection via the Sofrana Surville container ship that stopped off in Auckland earlier this month was put forward as the most likely source. It appears to have been contained, with no new community cases detected since Friday.
Authorities said last week a positive case had visited The Malt in Greenhithe and everyone who was there from 7:30pm until 10pm was asked to self-isolate and get tested.
Rangitoto College was also informed of a COVID-19 case within a school family, but the Auckland Regional Public Health Service said there was "very little risk".
The Government is now bringing in new testing requirements for international maritime crew arriving in New Zealand to prevent a similar outbreak from occurring.
Hipkins said he has instructed officials to consult with the maritime sector around tightening the requirements for international maritime crew entering the country.
"Ultimately, this will mean mandatory testing for all replacement maritime crew arriving in New Zealand, regardless of the time they spend in transit," he said.
"This will begin from next week, with any maritime crew in managed isolation for more than 24 hours getting a COVID-19 test."
Hipkins said the benefit is that if they do subsequently test positive authorities will be able to do contact trace the people they may have come into contact with in New Zealand, including those who are involved in the transfer.
"It'll also help us with our case investigation around potential transmission on flights in and out of New Zealand. The shipping companies will be informed and then ultimately they will know whether or not they have someone on board who is positive with COVID-19 and will be able to put in place protections."
The Government will cover the cost of the tests but there's an expectation for the shipping companies to cover managed isolation and quarantine if it's required.
People joining the ship won't have to wait for their test result beforehand. The Government will notify the shipping company upon a positive result because in many cases the ship will already have left New Zealand.
"The Government recognises mandatory testing may present some challenges for the maritime sector," Hipkins said. "Officials will continue to work with key stakeholders to ensure these new measures do not disrupt supply chains or put undue pressure on our managed isolation facilities."
Testing of border workers is already mandatory in New Zealand. All air and maritime workers, as well as staff at managed isolation and quarantine facilities, must take regular tests or else face fines of between $300 and $1000.
The Government faced serious pressure throughout in August after Newshub revealed more than 60 percent of all border-facing workers in Auckland had never been tested the week before the second outbreak.
That was despite a new testing strategy on June 23 which outlined the prioritisation of testing of border workers and airline staff, who were supposed to undergo "regular health checks and asymptomatic testing".
The source of the second outbreak is still unknown.
