The Ministry of Health has this evening been advised by Queensland health authorities of a change in classification for some passengers who flew from Brisbane to New Zealand on Thursday afternoon and evening New Zealand time.
While the health risk from the green zone breach event remains low, the Queensland authorities have advised New Zealand counterparts that those travellers who were in two locations of interest at specified times within the international terminal are casual plus contacts.
The two locations of interest are Hudson’s coffee stand and adjacent seating between 9.23am and 11.20am Thursday 29 April Queensland time, and the male toilet adjacent to Gate 79 between11.23am and 11.15pm when the toilet was cleaned.
As a precaution, anyone who was at these locations at these times should now immediately return home or to their accommodation, isolate until they get a negative result from a day five test on Tuesday 4 May.
As a precaution, anyone who was at these locations at these times should now immediately return home or to their accommodation, isolate until they get a negative result from a day five test on Tuesday 4 May.
Travellers who were in either of these two locations at this time should contact Healthline on 0800 358 5453 and register as a casual plus contact.
The Ministry’s contact tracing team will be contacting passengers on the three flights tomorrow.
The reported breach is linked to two individuals from a red zone country who were in the café and also used the toilets, both accessible to green zone passengers.
The two individuals were tested in Brisbane with one returning a negative result and the other returning a weak positive, confirmed by a second PCR test.
It remains reassuring that the two red zone individuals wore masks, maintained social distancing, had very little interaction with others and have not been symptomatic.
The three flights affected are Air New Zealand NZ 202 from Brisbane to Christchurch which arrived around 4.30 pm yesterday; Air New Zealand NZ 146 from Brisbane to Auckland which arrived at 5.30 pm yesterday and Qantas QF 135 from Brisbane to Christchurch yesterday
The Ministry remains in contact with Queensland Health authorities and will provide updates as more information becomes available.
A reminder for people who may need a COVID-19 test – please visit Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS) for all testing locations in Auckland.
Ministry of Health officials have this evening been advised a worker at a Perth managed isolation facility has tested positive for COVID-19 as part of routine testing. Two of the person’s housemates have also tested positive.
Ministry officials have conducted a rapid public health assessment for New Zealand, and have determined scheduled direct flights from Western Australia to New Zealand should be immediately paused while a further assessment is carried out, including a further assessment
and information from Australian health officials.
Western Australian health officials have determined a number of locations of interest, which are listed on its website.
A reported green zone breach at a Brisbane Airport café which may have involved passengers flying to New Zealand has prompted health authorities to advise passengers on arrival in New Zealand to monitor their health for the next 14 days.
The reported incident was in the Hudson Café in Brisbane airport where two individuals from a red zone country were in the café at the same time as green zone passengers. The risk has been assessed as low.
The Ministry understands the two red zone passengers returned negative results prior to departure from their home country. A second test result from swabs taken today has returned a weak positive for one test and a negative result for the other.
A total of 172,564 people have received their first doses of the vaccine, an increase of 31,984 from last Wednesday’s figure of 140,580.
A total of 60,024 people have received a second dose and are now fully vaccinated.
In the past seven days to Tuesday 27 April 2021 we administered 47,981 vaccination doses to people. This is slightly higher than the 47,845 vaccinations administered in the previous seven days. Overall, DHBs are tracking slightly ahead of plan.
We are also adding to our stocks of the Pfizer vaccination. We have received around 685,620 doses into the country – enough to vaccinate more than 342,000 people with the two doses required for maximum protection.