22 Oct 2020

Two Covid-19 positives on cargo ship from NZ to AUS

From Checkpoint, 5:07 pm on 22 October 2020

Two crew of the Sofrana Surville anchored off the Sunshine Coast have tested positive for Covid-19.

The Ministry of Health says the ship is the most likely source of infection of two New Zealand port workers who were aboard it when it was in New Zealand about 10 days ago.

Queensland's Health Minister Steven Miles made the announcement a short time ago. He says they're yet to confirm whether the positive cases onboard the ship are a genomically linked to the port workers here.

Back home, Covid-19 testers have been run off their feet on Auckland's North Shore, after news a pub goer unknowingly had Covid-19 when they went to the Malt bar in Greenhithe on Friday.

The Ministry of Health has stepped up its advice on who should get tested. It initially said anyone at the pub should get a test - now it says the contacts of all those pub-goers should too.

Many of them were doing exactly that, as health correspondent Rowan Quinn found, when she visited a testing centre.