Page 4 - Grand Millenium News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Michael Plank Professor in Applied Mathematics, University of Canterbury Within a day of the travel bubble opening, a fully vaccinated border worker who cleans planes coming from countries with high rates of COVID-19, tested positive and was transferred to a quarantine facility. Such cases show why it remains absolutely essential to maintain strict border measures to keep the virus out of the trans-Tasman bubble. Since January 1 2021, 397 international arrivals in New Zealand have tested positive for the virus. Most have been contained in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) f...

Although most border workers are now vaccinated, regular testing remains essential to guard against the risk of a major outbreak in the community.

Grand Millenium MIQ facility in Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook It comes as an investigation begins into how Covid-19 was transmitted in those facilities. Genome sequencing showed the virus spread between two returnees at the Grand Mercure, who arrived back on different flights, days apart. At the Grand Millenium, a returnee, a cleaner and two security guards are in a single chain of transmission. There are 224 isolating returnees across both hotels and once they all complete MIQ there will be a review of potential sources of spread at the facilities including the ventilation systems. Bliss ...

Photo: Mohd Rasfan / AFP Ministry of Health records show that a security guard who tested positive last week missed about five months of testing before that. Now it appears there could be up to 60 staff who have also missed regular mandatory testing. A public health expert is warning the current system is not up to the job and needs an urgent fix before the trans-Tasman bubble opens. Regular Covid-19 testing for MIQ workers is compulsory so news of an infected security guard at the Grand Millenium who had not been swabbed for five months raises a big question. National's Chris Bishop tried to...

Prime minister’s comments come after border worker diagnosed last week said to have missed two vaccine appointments