Hunt for variant as MIQ worker tests positive

A worker at a managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facility is in isolation after testing positive for Covid-19 on Friday afternoon.

Whole genome sequencing is being carried out to find out if it is the highly transmissible Omicron variant. The results will be reported today.

Investigations are under way to determine if the worker was infected in the community or at the facility where they work.

The worker is fully vaccinated, and household and workplace close contacts have been identified and are being tested. A number of household contacts have returned negative tests so far.

The Ministry of Health would not release information on which MIQ facility the person worked at, for ‘‘privacy reasons’’. Nor would it confirm which published locations of interest were linked to the case, again citing privacy.

Further information would be released if it was deemed necessary to manage public health risk, a spokesman told Sunday News yesterday afternoon. The ministry also did not give an update on whether any new Omicron cases had been detected at the border in the past 24 hours.

University of Otago (Wellington)

epidemiologist

Professor Nick Wilson said chances were that the worker would have been infected in MIQ, given the large number of cases coming through at the border, versus those in the community in Auckland. ‘‘That is a concern.’’ Wilson said the Government had not responded to the ‘‘ridiculously high’’ number of infected people entering New Zealand, which was at a

‘‘completely unsustainable level’’.

The seven-day rolling average of border cases is 30 – higher than the rolling average of community cases, which is 25.

Wilson said that, given what was known about the ‘‘track record of MIQ failures’’, New Zealand was probably just weeks away from an Omicron outbreak in the community. He said it would be desirable to delay that as long as possible to allow time to get booster doses up; to vaccinate the 5-11 group; and to learn from Australia’s experiences.

Professor Nick Wilson says it is likely that the worker was infected in MIQ.