Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Covid 19 coronavirus: Port vaccination levels a 'real weakness' for expert Michael Baker

Leah Tebbutt
By Leah Tebbutt
Multimedia Journalist·Bay of Plenty Times·
10 Aug, 2021 06:00 PM7 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
14Comments

Subscriber benefit

The ability to gift paywall-free articles is a subscriber only benefit. See more offers by clicking the button below.

Already a subscriber?  Sign in here
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

The Covid-19 Response Minister is trying to determine why the Rio de la Plata was given authority to enter the port. Photo / George Novak
The Covid-19 Response Minister is trying to determine why the Rio de la Plata was given authority to enter the port. Photo / George Novak

The Covid-19 Response Minister is trying to determine why the Rio de la Plata was given authority to enter the port. Photo / George Novak

One of New Zealand's leading Covid-19 experts says the Port of Tauranga's vaccination rate is a "real weakness" and has called for better regulations around borders.

Self-isolating port workers are said to be distressed, believing they have let down their community by not isolating sooner.

On Monday, it was revealed crew of the container ship Rio de la Plata, which had been berthed in Tauranga within the past week, had tested positive for Covid-19.

Port workers had also been on the vessel and, subsequently, 98 of those workers employed by a Port of Tauranga contractor were forced to self-isolate and get tested.

One-hundred-and-ten port workers were tested for the virus and last night, health officials confirmed all had returned negative. Originally, all but one returned negative but the outlier result was inconclusive and retested.

Open up the latest news from Rotorua

Get daily headlines from the Rotorua region straight to your inbox.
Please email me competitions, offers and other updates. You can stop these at any time.
By signing up for this newsletter, you agree to NZME’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

University of Otago epidemiologist Michael Baker said ports were one of New Zealand's most vulnerable areas in the fight to keep Covid-19 out of the country.

Rio de la Plata is still anchored near Mōtītī Island after it was confirmed to have Covid-19 cases on board. Photo / George Novak
Rio de la Plata is still anchored near Mōtītī Island after it was confirmed to have Covid-19 cases on board. Photo / George Novak

"People don't always appreciate that borders are actually a major area of potential risk," he said.

"I think we should be much more assertive in how we work with the owners and operators of any ship that is brought into New Zealand.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Vaccination levels in port workers are still relatively low. I think that's a real, real weakness."

A Port of Tauranga worker, who spoke anonymously to not breach his contract, said his colleagues were distressed about the situation.

Discover more

New Zealand

Health Ministry cleared Covid-infected ship for berthing, says Maritime NZ

09 Aug 07:04 PM
New Zealand

Port workers question if Rio de la Plata workers knew they were sick

11 Aug 07:26 PM

"There is quite a few of them who are really pissed off they were sent home to their families and told there was nothing to worry about," he said.

"Some of them feel like there's a bit of responsibility on themselves as well and they weren't given the opportunity to act responsibly."

Nine of the 98 workers identified as having contact with the Rio de la Plata were vaccinated.

Port of Tauranga spokeswoman Rochelle Lockley said the port was only responsible for ensuring all its employees were vaccinated - despite about 6000 people having swipe access.

"Almost all of our own frontline staff are vaccinated, but there are dozens of companies that work on the port," she said.

"A small proportion of these interact with ships and so are eligible for regular Covid-19 testing and early vaccination."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
University of Otago epidemiologist Michael Baker. Photo / NZME
University of Otago epidemiologist Michael Baker. Photo / NZME

Lockley said the port only had visibility over the vaccination rates for its own employees, not the contracted companies.

Around 50 Port of Tauranga team members were eligible and almost all were fully vaccinated, she said.

Vaccinations have been available at the port since March. In response to Baker's comments, Lockley said the port strongly supported vaccination and it was exhibited through the information sessions and on-site vaccination centres.

"Vaccination is another useful tool in the fight against Covid-19, but we will continue to follow all our other precautions that have worked for the past 18 months: frequent cleaning, use of PPE, physical distancing from ship's crew and regular Covid-19 testing," she said.

"These precautions were followed by all workers who boarded the Rio de la Plata last week."

Port operations were initially shut down last week when cargo left the vessel, despite the Ministry of Health giving the all-clear for operations, Maritime NZ confirmed to the Bay of Plenty Times yesterday.

Ships entering any harbour are obligated to declare they are free of contagious disease. Lockley referred to it as the "free pratique" process.

"Ships' captains must apply to the local Medical Officer of Health for permission to berth before entering any port."

About 6000 people have swipe access to the Port of Tauranga. Photo / George Novak
About 6000 people have swipe access to the Port of Tauranga. Photo / George Novak

Asked why the crew were not tested before entering the Port of Tauranga, a Ministry of Health spokesman said after an assessment, the risk was deemed to be low.

"The health assessment remained the same – namely that the arriving Rio De la Plata ship could have Covid-19 cases on board, and would be treated as such."

In response to Baker's comments, the spokesman said recent events did highlight the "heightened risk" port workers faced.

"Highly transmissible variants like the Delta Variant, which was found to have infected the international mariners, greatly increases the risk of Covid-19 crossing our border through the port sector, and the ministry and its stakeholders remain strongly committed to working together to protect our borders."

He said employers were responsible for making sure workers were vaccinated in line with the legislation.

Speaking to the Herald, Port of Tauranga chief executive Leonard Sampson questioned the quality of government agencies' risk assessment of the vessel flagged as a Covid risk but allowed to berth and unload.

"The concern really is around the decision to allow the vessel in the first place," he said.

"I think more transparency and understanding around the risk assessment process in the beginning [was needed]. From our perspective, we would have liked to see a comprehensive risk assessment carried out on August 3 before the vessel was allowed to berth at the port."

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins. Photo / NZME
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins. Photo / NZME

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said on Monday afternoon health authorities were looking at whether it was known there were sick people on board when the ship was unloaded.

"We will look at who knew what, when" and what decisions were made, he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, the ministry announced the two pilots, one of whom brought the Rio de la Plata into port and the other who took it out, had returned negative results and would remain in isolation for the balance of the 14 days after the possible exposure.

Toi Te Ora, the local public health unit, confirmed 72 port workers boarded the vessel while it was docked in Tauranga.

All of these workers have been tested and all results are negative. Some individuals may have an additional test to ensure they fall within the 72-hour threshold of when they were last on the ship.

Community impact

The Ministry of Health has said the risk to the community following the incident involving the Rio de la Plata was low but a cautious approach was being taken.

Any decisions on introducing social restrictions, such as reducing the size of events or pausing them all together, would be made and announced by the Government. The alert level currently remains at 1.

However, Mark Roberson from Whakatāne was cutting the basketball season short for his two teenagers aged 13 and 16 after they played an inter-school tournament on Wednesday night in Tauranga.

The 59-year-old got his first Covid shot on Saturday and said he would only have a 20 per cent chance of surviving if he got the sometimes deadly virus.

Roberson was worried about the foot traffic at Trustpower Arena as there were about 30 teams participating and ''there was a lot of children and parents crossing paths''.

He wondered if any of those people were connected to the Port of Tauranga workers currently self-isolating.

BayVenues strategic marketing and communications manager Samantha Wilkie said it had robust plans already in place to quickly adapt our venues to adhere to escalated alert levels.

At the moment it was adhering to alert level 1 and had the Government's Covid Tracer app code on display within all its venues and ''we continue to encourage best hygiene practices''.

In the last financial year on average, there were 0.4 sporting events a week at Trustpower Arena.

Western Bay of Plenty Principals Association president Suzanne Billington said schools adhered to Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health guidelines and because there was no community transition, it came down to parental choice.

''So if any parent is feeling uncomfortable they can make their own decisions for their children.''

Subscriber benefit

The ability to gift paywall-free articles is a subscriber only benefit. See more offers by clicking the button below.

Already a subscriber?  Sign in here
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

14

Comments

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

Tribesmen's alleged 'hotbox' murder after gang member's unauthorised online shopping

16 Jun 07:30 AM
Premium
Opinion

Why Rotorua's First XV victory over Hamilton is one for the ages

16 Jun 05:01 AM
Rotorua Daily Post

'Do what's right': Shaken witness' call after hit-and-run

16 Jun 01:59 AM

How one volunteer makes people feel seen

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Recommended for you
'Lots of frost': NZ braces for sub-zero chill, possible 'heavy rain' before Matariki
New Zealand

'Lots of frost': NZ braces for sub-zero chill, possible 'heavy rain' before Matariki

16 Jun 08:21 AM
'Sharp instincts': $7.5m meth haul intercepted by Customs
New Zealand

'Sharp instincts': $7.5m meth haul intercepted by Customs

16 Jun 08:19 AM
'Good Samaritan': Off-duty officer sucker-punched while trying to stop shoplifters
Crime

'Good Samaritan': Off-duty officer sucker-punched while trying to stop shoplifters

16 Jun 08:00 AM
Air attack on Israeli cities after strikes in central Iran
World

Air attack on Israeli cities after strikes in central Iran

16 Jun 07:59 AM
Tribesmen's alleged 'hotbox' murder after gang member's unauthorised online shopping
New Zealand

Tribesmen's alleged 'hotbox' murder after gang member's unauthorised online shopping

16 Jun 07:30 AM

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Tribesmen's alleged 'hotbox' murder after gang member's unauthorised online shopping

Tribesmen's alleged 'hotbox' murder after gang member's unauthorised online shopping

16 Jun 07:30 AM

Mark Hohua, known as Shark, was allegedly beaten to death by fellow gang members in 2022.

Premium
Why Rotorua's First XV victory over Hamilton is one for the ages

Why Rotorua's First XV victory over Hamilton is one for the ages

16 Jun 05:01 AM
'Do what's right': Shaken witness' call after hit-and-run

'Do what's right': Shaken witness' call after hit-and-run

16 Jun 01:59 AM
BoP dairy targeted by armed robbers

BoP dairy targeted by armed robbers

16 Jun 01:00 AM
Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka
sponsored

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search