Thread by @WicMar

New Zealand found out yesterday that a lady returning from Europe via the UK, who had been in our quarantine facilities (MiQ)for the mandatory 14 days, tested positive 11 days AFTER she left the hotel.

This is what our government informed us about within one day:
1/

Despite it being a Sunday, they held a televised press conference a few hours after finding out.

They also shared information on social media to the public that same afternoon.

2/

And publicised a list of ALL places and times the lady had visited and asked all people to test themselves and isolate until the test results showed negative. They also sent out push notifications to all people & businesses who were at the locations and had used the app.
3/

This was possible as the lady had used our NZ Covid Tracking app diligently since arriving in NZ.
4/

Early on they contacted and tested all the lady’s close contacts, around 4. So far the husband and the hairdresser’s came back negative(which is a good sign).

She is isolating and so is her contacts.

They set up new testing stations in Northland and dispatched extra PPE.
5/

Genome testing, CCTV footage and further investigation revealed the lady contracted the virus at the quarantine facility from another person who arrived on January 9th (2 days before she was leaving) and the strain turned out to be the South African variant.
6/

Guests at the MIQ who have left after January 9th have been contacted and asked to isolate for 14 days and current guests are now also required to stay longer.
7/

The testing stations today had long queues of people coming to test themselves and the Helpline was inundated with calls. People are taking this seriously even if it meant waiting in their cars for hours in 28 degrees today.
8/

So we know where the person has been,how she got infected, what strain it is, all her contacts are isolating & other people in the community are testing themselves.

All within 48 hours.

When I say #ZeroCovid I am not only referring to not having domestic cases but this process.

Ps. We’ve had 6000 positive cases at the MIQs from 100,000 returnees~only one another case earlier this year (staff) was infected (lift button).
This is a fickle virus, it can bypass even an Alcatraz process, NZ has great results so far, but good learnings.
Australia’s proposal:

Correction: the news site I read the data around the 6000 positive cases was incorrect(as we only have a TOTAL of 2290 cases since the pandemic started).

It should be **600***positive cases through MIQ from 100,000 in total.
Apologies.

Here is a thread on our MIQ(managed isolation quarantine hotels)and they work:

https://twitter.com/wicmar/status/1353942377304518657

And 2 days after @jacindaardern releases on of her Instavideos to her ”team of 5 million kiwis”.
I wouldn’t say it is a ’rare’ event, she has done several of these - it is her trademark actually, and a vital part of NZ success❤️

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1354135505844236289