Test results have been returned for more than 700 Port of Tauranga workers tested for Covid-19, and with all testing negative.
Port of Tauranga Photo: RNZ / Joanne O'Brien
The Bay of Plenty District Health Board says 720 "high priority" Covid-19 tests were processed, with all workers testing negative.
The tests were ordered after the initial discovery of new cases of Covid-19 in the community in South Auckland on 10 August, which followed 102 days with no known community transmission. The Auckland cluster has now developed into New Zealand's biggest since the start of the pandemic, and is ongoing with another seven cases reported today.
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On August 14 Otago University epidemiology Professor Sir David Skegg told RNZ more than half of staff working at the border had never been tested.
He said testing frontline staff was essential, the decision not to test them regularly was "extraordinary", and he understood that some staff who asked for tests had been turned down.
"I was really shocked to hear the Director-General of Health say a week or two ago that they were aiming to test people [border workers] every two or three weeks, every two or three weeks frankly would be quite inadequate," he said.
The same day, the government ordered all 12,000 border workers at Auckland and Tauranga's ports to be tested urgently. Most imports to New Zealand come through one of these two ports.
Authorities have not been able to trace the source of the Auckland outbreak, which could have come from the border. The sourcemay never be known the Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield has said.
A new testing facility was set up at the Port of Tauranga and samples were collected from17 to 20 August "in advance of the Ministry of Health deadline", the DHB said in a news release.
An initial deadline of 18 August for the tests to be processed was later softened.
Interim chief executive of the DHB Simon Everitt thanked the port workers and all involved who had "worked tirelessly".
Recent research from searchers at Te Pūnaha Matatini found that testing border workers often is crucial to containing any cases of the the virus that arrive in the country.
The latest modelling found testing border staff weekly doubled the chance of detecting Covid before it could spread further.
