Tauranga COVID alarm reinforces need to stay on guard

The Mar­itime Union says a COVID alarm aboard a ves­sel in the Port of Tau­ran­ga is a reminder that strict process­es at ports are essen­tial to pro­tect New Zealand from expo­sure.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Nation­al Sec­re­tary Craig Har­ri­son says the inci­dent aboard the Rio de la Pla­ta on Wednes­day 4 August did not direct­ly affect Mar­itime Union mem­bers.

Work had been stopped on the ship and work­ers were sent home to iso­late, but lat­er the ship was giv­en the all clear for work to resume.

He says there had been some con­fu­sion about the sta­tus of the ves­sel and its crew, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion may have to be improved, but any false alarms were prefer­able to expo­sure to COVID.

Mr Har­ri­son says it is impor­tant that steve­dores and port com­pa­nies con­tin­ue to ensure strict pro­to­cols are fol­lowed and PPE gear is used, as this had been suc­cess­ful so far.

He says the Mar­itime Union wants to see more proac­tive mea­sures includ­ing pub­lic health staff vis­it­ing ports and hav­ing con­ver­sa­tions with work­ers about the impor­tance of vac­ci­na­tion.

Mr Har­ri­son says an issue that is not being addressed is improved test­ing and vac­ci­na­tion of over­seas crews vis­it­ing ports, which was not hap­pen­ing.

Vac­ci­na­tion of crews was a weak point in inter­na­tion­al efforts to con­trol COVID and this was where atten­tion need­ed to be focussed, he says.