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[45]

Coronavirus

Coronavirus: Auckland cool storage facility tested over concern Covid-19
entered NZ via freight

Thomas Manch, Donna-Lee Biddle and Caroline Williams18:48, Aug 12 2020
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RNZ

One worker has tested positive for Covid at the Americold NZ cold
storage company in Auckland.

A cool storage facility in Auckland will be tested for [51]Covid-19,
with the possibility that the virus could have travelled into New
Zealand on refrigerated freight.

Four cases of Covid-19 were discovered in south Auckland on Tuesday
evening, [52]ending a 102-day run of no community transmission.

One of the people infected worked at Americold, a cool store company in
Mount Wellington.

Another worked at personal finance company Finance Now on Dominion Rd
in Mount Eden.

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reacted to zero new Covid-19 cases

Health officials have not ruled out the possibility that the virus,
surviving in a refrigerated environment on freight being transported
from abroad, may have then been contracted at the cool store.

Bloomfield confirmed “environmental testing” of the storage facility
would take place as well as looking for transmission between staff.

“We do know from studies overseas that, actually, the virus can survive
in some refrigerated environments for quite some time,” he said.

1 NEWS

Dr Ashley Bloomfield says one member of the infected family works at a
finance company in central Auckland.

“We start by looking at all the options and ruling then out, and that’s
the position we’re in at the moment.”

He was unsure if the cool store was receiving international freight
that had been refrigerated for its whole journey.

The cool storage facility where the man worked, in Mount Wellington,
had been closed down along with three other sites the company had
around the city, he said. The 160 staff across all the facilities would
be tested for Covid-19.

STUFF

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern briefs media on new cases and lockdown
levels.

Americold’s managing director, Richard Winnall, said the staff member
with coronavirus is now at home in south Auckland and doing well.

He works alongside 26 others at the facility.

“Our head of operations reached out to him and his family, and they are
doing OK. They’re overwhelmed at the attention, but doing OK,” Winnall
said.

There was a surge in Covid-19 testing at the community-based testing
centre in Hutt Valley on Wednesday, in response to region going back
into alert level 2.

ROSA WOODS/Stuff

There was a surge in Covid-19 testing at the community-based testing
centre in Hutt Valley on Wednesday, in response to region going back
into alert level 2.

The employee had been on sick leave for nine days and did everything
right, including staying home when he started experiencing flu-like
symptoms.

“It was a relatively quick time frame from being told we had a
suspected Covid case to it then being confirmed positive,” Winnall
said.

“This all happened after-hours and shut down pretty quickly, it was a
decisive move.”

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the surfaces would be tested
because, “while we primarily look for human-to-human transmission” they
needed to be sure freight wasn’t involved.

Professor Michael Baker, an epidemiologist, said it was an “intriguing
idea” that the virus might survived on a surface across the border.

He was not aware of this being documented at all in research.

The director-general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, said on Wednesday
that health officials would test surfaces at a cool storage facility
for Covid-19.

Monique Ford/Stuff

The director-general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, said on Wednesday
that health officials would test surfaces at a cool storage facility
for Covid-19.

“In general, the role of surfaces for transmitting the virus has
probably been overemphasised in the past.

“There’s much more focus now on transmission in indoor environments,
and respiratory droplets and aerosols,” he said.

It was poorly ventilated, indoor environments where people incubating
the illness came into contact with others that posed the greatest risk,
he said.

Meanwhile, the work environment at Finance Now was “quite secure” and
all on one floor, a source confirmed to Stuff.

“There is very, very little direct customer contact at Finance Now if
any at all – so the issue will be to test all staff and the contacts of
any positive cases.”

The source said the Auckland office building has been shut and staff
are working from home.

The first of four cases identified on Tuesday evening is a person in
their 50s living in south Auckland. That person works at Finance Now
with 130 others, and three people working there are now symptomatic.

The second case, the partner of the first case, was the cool storage
worker. A third case, a woman in her 20s, travelled to Rotorua on
Saturday with four others on the weekend of August 9.

The fourth case was a preschooler who also travelled to Rotorua.

More than 200 close contacts of the community cases have been
identified, 100 of whom are yet to be contacted, director-general of
health Dr Ashley Bloomfield confirmed on Wednesday.

Employees of the two companies have been ordered to self-isolate at
home until they are contacted by the Ministry of Health contact tracing
service.

Visitors to the workplaces in the last 14 days and people who live with
employees have been asked to do the same.

Bloomfield gave the oral direction under section 17 of the Health Act
at a press conference with Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday
afternoon, citing a significant and serious risk to the public.

Stuff
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