By Liu Chen from RNZ

Workers at the port of Tauranga are angry and disappointed that they were brought back to work after coming into contact with a ship with crew members infected with Covid-19, and say the handling of the ship is chaotic, according to the maritime union.

Eleven of the 21 crew members of the Rio De La Plata, which is at sea off Tauranga, have tested positive for the virus. The test swabs were taken as part of the entry conditions for its next stop, Napier.

On Tuesday August 3, the port of Tauranga received an alert from Maritime New Zealand indicating that the container ship had been embarked two weeks ago by an Australian pilot who recently tested positive for Covid-19.

However, the ship was cleared to dock in Tauranga and it did so on Wednesday afternoon. A pilot from the port of Tauranga then boarded the ship and brought the ship to the Tauranga container terminal, according to the port of Tauranga.

But a few hours later, at 9 p.m., customs halted operations on the vessel. The pilot and the longshoremen were advised to return home and self-isolate pending further instructions.

A spokesperson for the port of Tauranga said the next day that authorities had clarified the situation and indicated that operations could resume.

The notice changed on Monday morning, when workers were asked to report to the port and get tested, as a statement from the Department of Health suggests.

Rail and Shipping Union general secretary Wayne Butson said the situation had been mismanaged.

“The union and its members involved in this matter are extremely disappointed and members are particularly angry at what I think can only be described as a chaotic approach to the treatment of this ship,” he said.

The health ministry said 92 port workers had been identified as having contact with the ship – 91 of them were tested and 11 tested negative.

The ship had been worked Thursday through Saturday, and workers were on the move until they were briefed today, Butson said.

“What is more important now is that our members are very angry and very scared because they have mingled with families. We know that some of them have actually visited other centers in Nouvelle. -Zeeland over the weekend, and some have attended sporting events and so on with their whānau, ”he said.

“They are all sitting there, just wondering who might have been affected. Due to the fact that they went to work after being initially ordered not to go to work, to work the ship in good faith, to do confidence in the authorities and the advice that was coming out and now we find out where we are. “

A strict approach should be taken, Butson said.

“I think whenever there is a boat that has had cases, nothing should happen with a ship until there are real negative tests and there are signs corroborated to indicate that there is no risk on this vessel, ”he said.

A spokesperson for the Port of Napier said he was taking precautions as it should be the ship’s next stopover.

“Our protocol is that any vessel, sailor or person who is in close contact with a confirmed case of Covid-19 is required to self-isolate on board the vessel, at anchor, and to be tested negative for Covid-19. before we approve it to dock. … We will continue to work closely with government agencies for the next steps. “

“Very worrying situation”

Maritime Union National Secretary Craig Harrison said there must be a detailed profile of the crew members’ Covid-19 vaccination status and test results as they travel around the world.

“Basically getting a feel for what these ships look like when they go around the world. do to help protect the countries and borders they enter. “

University of Auckland professor of medicine Des Gorman said the weakest part of the country’s border was the ports. Since those infected were likely to have the highly infectious Delta variant and the low vaccination rate of New Zealand’s general population, the country was vulnerable, he said.

Port workers needed to be fully immunized as soon as possible, Gorman said.

“It is a very worrying situation to have a ship full of infected people facing a port where 40% of the people are not vaccinated.”

Crew members should not be allowed to leave the ship unless they need to be hospitalized, Gorman said.

The health ministry said it was continuing its investigation into the vaccination status of workers who interacted with the ship.

“An updated figure is that nine workers have been fully vaccinated and two have received a dose of vaccine. The vaccination status of four other workers who have had contact with the vessel is still being verified,” he said. he said in a statement.

“The ministry acknowledges that these numbers would have been higher, given the continued messages to employers and employees about the vital importance of vaccination, especially to protect border workers.

“He continues to work closely with port companies, the shipping industry, sector agencies and DHBs on an ongoing basis to ensure the effective deployment of the vaccine to as many of these workers as possible.”

– RNZ