Three more cases of the Omicron strain of Covid-19 have emerged in managed isolation.
The three people with Omicron arrived from Dubai on Saturday December 11 and were taken to a Rotorua managed isolation and quarantine facility - MIQ - on a bus chartered with other international arrivals, the Ministry of Health say in a statement.
"Whole genome sequencing has detected three further Omicron cases in recent international arrivals," says a Ministry of Health spokesperson.
One case travelled to Dubai from London, the second case travelled to Dubai from Spain and the third travelled to Dubai from Nigeria. All three then boarded the same flight to Auckland.
The cases are not linked to the first Omicron case reported on Thursday.
After testing positive, the cases were moved to the Jet Park Quarantine facility in Auckland where they are currently isolating.
As a precautionary measure, all passengers on the flights with the case are required to complete all ten days at a managed isolation facility – rather than spending the last three days of their isolation period in self-isolation.
'The detection of further Omicron cases is not surprising given the rapid spread of Omicron internationally,” says a Ministry of Health spokesperson.
'Our health and MIQ teams around the country have been planning for Omicron cases at the border, and will continue to manage all arrivals cautiously.
'Our border settings means we are well placed to manage Omicron cases with isolation and testing requirements for all new arrivals, robust infection and prevention control and PPE measures at airports and MIQ facilities, and frequent surveillance testing of staff who have any contact with recent international returnees.”
The Ministry of Health says the vaccine remains our key defence against all variants of COVID-19, including Omicron.
'We continue to ask everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated, including people who are now eligible for a booster dose.”
Further updates will be provided in the 1pm COVID-19 media statement today.
2 comments
Contagion
Posted on 18-12-2021 08:34 | By Slim Shady
Each variant is apparently much much more contagious than the last. OK. Also milder, but let’s ignore that fact. I remember when it first emerged in China they were showing graphics of how it spread in a restaurant to people sat nowhere near patient one. Very contagious they said. Mmmm…Beta, Delta, now Omicron, all super super contagious. Must be 100 times more than the original. Yet the Omicron passenger who came all the way from Germany on a plane, then on a domestic flight to Christchurch, then a bus to MIQ, has given it to a grand total of 0 people. No doubt it’s contagious. It’s a cold virus. But the overplaying of the contagious aspect and the knee jerk responses is starting to look ridiculous.
Experts
Posted on 18-12-2021 08:44 | By Slim Shady
I prefer to listen to world leading experts Sir Roy Anderson and Professor Tony Blakeley. They haven’t got the New Zealand blinkers on. Both think the stringent border settings and “keep it out” strategy is a mistake and will sink New Zealand further down the rabbit hole. Both think we have to let it in and accept thousands of cases in order to come through the other side. It’s all well and good locking yourself in a panic room but if the boogie man is never going away, you’re in there forever. Which is fine if you have everything you need in there. But New Zealand doesn’t. The elimination strategy is going to bite New Zealand on the bum in the next few years. You were warned.
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