Just the facts - A closer look at the Covid-19 vaccine being rolled out across Aotearoa. How it works, why we need it and who developed it. Video / NZ Herald
Two people newly arrived in the country were taken from Auckland Airport and transferred straight to Middlemore Hospital this week.
It comes as health officials reveal a Covid-positive person was transferred from Jet Park quarantine facility to Middlemore Hospital yesterday.
Counties Manukau District Health Board said the two patients transferred from the airport did not have Covid but were admitted to the South Auckland hospital for medical reasons.
Officials said Middlemore was the accepting hospital for passengers arriving into the country through Auckland Airport.
Any patient from the airport accepted by the hospital, regardless of the reason for their admission, was considered Covid-exposed and subject to the same rigorous infection prevention and control measures as a patient with the virus.
The Ministry of Health has confirmed two people with Covid are now being treated in Auckland hospitals.
The first is a UN worker from Fiji who remains in the intensive care unit at Middlemore Hospital.
A second person with the infection was transferred from the Jet Park quarantine facility to Auckland City Hospital yesterday afternoon.
During that transfer there was a personal protection equipment breach by a health worker.
Public health officials had reviewed the incident and determined the PPE use did not fully meet agreed protocols.
While the risk had been assessed as low, as a precautionary measure the health worker was now classified as a casual contact and had been asked to monitor symptoms, the ministry said. They would be automatically tested in seven days' time.
Infected UN staffer at Middlemore
Middlemore Hospital doctors are currently treating a Covid patient from Fiji who arrived in the country just over a week ago.
The patient, a UN worker in her 60s, is currently in the hospital's intensive care unit. She is being treated in a negative pressure isolation room in a dedicated Covid-19 space.
Within 24 hours of the patient's arrival, a health worker treating the woman was quarantined after a PPE breach which officials have refused to give details about.
The worker was moved into a quarantine facility after they were unable to easily self-isolate at home.
The DHB regarded the breach as minor, with other protections in place at the time.
Initial tests for any signs the infection had spread came back negative.
When the sick UN staffer arrived in New Zealand, her condition was described as critical.
Last week it hadn't been confirmed which variant the woman had contracted, but staff were treating the patient as though she had the highly contagious Delta variant.
There are currently 30 cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, according to the Ministry of Health.
Yesterday two people with Covid were listed as in hospital. One mariner from the Mattina cargo ship berthed in Bluff remained in Southland Hospital. The crewman's condition was described as "improving".
