Coronavirus IS HERE
Scramble to curb NZ cases
The first case of coronavirus has been confirmed in New Zealand, and authorities are now scrambling to track down people who may have come into contact with the patient.
The person – who is in their 60s – is in a stable and improving condition in Auckland City Hospital, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. The person is a citizen of New Zealand who had been to Iran and flown back to New Zealand via Bali.
Ardern said New Zealand’s pandemic plan was now being fully put into place.
‘‘It has been through good care and good management that New Zealand has gone through such a long period of time without having a case arriving on our shores,’’ Ardern added.
The Ministry of Health had earlier confirmed testing was underway for a suspected coronavirus case. The results of the tests were formally reported to the ministry about 4.15pm yesterday.
‘‘I’m confident that the risk of this disease is being very wellmanaged,’’ Health Minister David Clark said last night.
It was revealed the person diagnosed with the disease had tested negative for coronavirus on two previous occasions but continued to show symptoms.
‘‘Clinical judgment was to continue and look into greater detail,’’ Clark said.
New Zealand was the 48th country to have a confirmed case and more sporadic cases may continue to arrive in New Zealand, Clark said.
‘‘We are well prepared, because we’ve had time to be prepared.’’
FIRST CASE IN NEW ZEALAND
The patient is currently being treated in Auckland City Hospital and is in isolation in a negative pressure room to prevent any spread of the disease. They have been in the room since arriving at the hospital.
The Health Ministry insists that the risk of a community outbreak of coronavirus from this patient is low.
Director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield said public health officials had been working to trace who the person had been in close contact with.
This included passengers on the
‘‘We are well prepared, because we’ve had time to be prepared.’’ David Clark
Health Minister
flight involved, particularly on the final leg, which came from Bali to New Zealand.
Officials would be contacting people who had been sitting within the same row as the individual, along with the two rows ahead and behind. Cabin crew members would also be contacted. They would be required to self-isolate for 14 days.
The person arrived in New Zealand on Wednesday on Emirates flight EK450 to Auckland via Bali, from Tehran.
While travelling, the person was ‘‘unwell’’, Bloomfield said. He understood they were wearing a mask on board the flight.
Once they arrived, they had travelled by private vehicle to their own home, with family members only.
Later that same day, when relatives became concerned about the person’s condition, Healthline was phoned, Bloomfield said.
After being advised to go to hospital, the person was taken there by the family members. All were wearing masks on arrival. As a result of the individual’s symptoms and travel history, they were admitted and tested. ‘‘All the right protocols were followed.’’
The ministry had no evidence the person had transmitted the virus to anybody else.
TWO EARLIER TESTS ON PERSON NEGATIVE
Medical staff had a ‘‘high degree of suspicion’’ about the patient, so continued to take further test samples from them, Bloomfield said.
The person was the first in New Zealand to fulfil the definition of a suspected case. The first two samples were taken from the person’s throat, and returned a negative result. The patient’s symptoms – a cough and difficult breathing –
were more consistent with a lung infection, and so a third sample, which returned a positive result, was taken from there.
The person had travelled to Iran some weeks ago to visit family and was returning to New Zealand.
At least three family members were also in isolation and would be offered testing.
The ministry would not be retesting any of the people it had previously tested in New Zealand who had returned a negative result.
Bloomfield said the process followed by the person and their family was ‘‘exemplary’’.
‘‘People need to feel empowered and enabled to do the right thing. In this case, we have a family who did exactly the right thing.’’
TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS FROM IRAN
The Government earlier announced temporary travel restrictions on people travelling from Iran – but this was was not directly related to the person’s diagnosis, Bloomfield said. The ministry had already been concerned about the increasing number of deaths in Iran reported earlier in the week.
Clark said there were an increasing number of cases in Iran and concerns about the quality of information coming out of the country.
Iran’s healthcare system was struggling to cope with a widespread coronavirus outbreak, Bloomfield said.
The situation in Iran was concerning, Clark said. ‘‘There is ongoing spread of the disease there, and a large degree of uncertainty about the scale of the outbreak and the ability to contain it.’’
The new restrictions mean people will not be able to travel from Iran to New Zealand and anyone who has been in Iran in the last 14 days would need to self-isolate.
New Zealand citizens and permanent residents will still be allowed to return home but will be told to selfisolate for 14 days.
The restrictions came into force immediately, and would be reviewed every 48 hours.
NO EXEMPTIONS FOR CHINESE STUDENTS
The Government had also decided not to allow any exemptions to let overseas students from China into New Zealand, Clark said.
‘‘Our priority is protecting New Zealanders.
‘‘Allowing thousands of students into the country from China, and guaranteeing they were safely in self-isolation, would have been incredibly difficult to implement.’’
Globally the virus has infected more than 83,000 people, and more than 2800 people had died – most of them in mainland China.
However, in the past week there have been alarming outbreaks outside China, with outbreaks in Italy, South Korea, Iran, Japan and Singapore.
Since early February, New Zealand has banned the entry of foreign nationals who have travelled from or through mainland China in the past 14 days.
HEALTH STAFF TO MEET FLIGHTS
Starting today, health staff would meet all direct international flights landing at New Zealand airports from Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand.
Bloomfield said while the World Health Organisation had not yet defined the global spread of the virus as a pandemic, New Zealand was effectively treating it as one.
The Government has also signed off on a $1 million fund available to key regions most affected by the travel restrictions put in place for Chinese visitors as a result of the coronavirus, such as Auckland, Rotorua, Queenstown and Christchurch.