Napier shop owners supportive of cruises, despite 131 Covid cases on first vessel

Ovation of the Seas in Napier Port on Monday. Photo / Paul Taylor

Napier shop owners and workers appear largely comfortable with cruises continuing to dock, after the first visit from a ship in more than two years had over 100 active Covid cases aboard.

Hawke's Bay welcomed the Ovation of the Seas on Monday morning when it docked at Napier Port carrying about 4500 passengers and crew.

It has since visited Wellington and Picton and, on Wednesday, a Picton pharmacist noted passengers were coming into the store maskless and exhibiting Covid symptoms.

It was revealed this week the ship has Covid cases on board, with 131 active cases confirmed as of Tuesday at 1pm.

In the whole of the Hawke's Bay community, there were 425 active cases on the same day, and 420 on Wednesday.

Health authorities were informed of the cases on board the Ovation of the Seas but were satisfied with quarantine measures for those with the virus, and allowed other passengers to disembark into Napier's central city and the surrounding attractions.

Andrew Glenny, owner of Napier store Giftware and Engravers, said he was not concerned about the potential of Covid spreading from cruise ships during the coming months as it was already in the community.

"I don't see the concern when on all the planes they are not testing."

New Zealand recording about 16,000 new Covid cases each week in the community meant he did not see cruises as a big risk, he said.

One Napier store worker, who did not want to be named, said it did make her feel "a bit nervous" after learning there were 131 cases on the latest ship, but she was generally happy to see cruises return and boost local businesses.

There are 89 cruise ship visits scheduled for Napier Port between October and April, although not all those visits are guaranteed to eventuate.

Dancers welcome cruise visitors to Napier on Monday. Photo / Paul Taylor

One Kiwi Covid modeller claims there is an almost 100 per cent chance of active cases being present aboard any large cruise ships entering New Zealand.

Dr Emily Harvey, co-lead of the Contagion Network modelling programme for Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa, ran the numbers after news the Ovation of the Seas was dealing with active cases.

Harvey said the estimated prevalence of Covid in the UK (the only country that conducts a regular infection prevalence survey) is sitting at 3 per cent and was likely to be sitting somewhere about 1 per cent in New Zealand due to the current "lull" in case numbers.

"Using this maths, we can estimate that on a plane with 300 passengers, with a background prevalence of 1 per cent, the chance that someone on your plane is infected is 78 per cent.

"Now thinking about cruise ships, which are larger, we would estimate that on a cruise ship of 2000 people, with background prevalence of 1 per cent, the probability that at least one of them is infected at the start of the trip approaches 100 per cent."

Napier store Minton Booklovers operator Paul, who did not want his last name published, said it was great to see Emerson St so busy on Monday with cruise passengers returning.

"It was like it used to be - it felt like things were normal again. There was a great energy."

He said he was not concerned about the risk of Covid spreading from cruise ships.

"No. I think I am past worrying about the whole Covid thing, to be honest."

The Ovation of the Seas had last docked in Tahiti before arriving in Napier on Monday, and many of the passengers were thrilled to get their feet back on land after six days at sea and enjoy some sightseeing and shopping.

The Ovation of the Seas is scheduled to return to Napier Port on November 5 after visiting Australia.

The next cruise ship scheduled to visit Napier Port is the Celebrity Eclipse, which is expected to arrive at about 5.30am on Saturday.