Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: Virus takes hold in Ōpōtiki, several cases among Tongan workers

Ōpōtiki district had 12 new Covid-19 cases yesterday bringing the total active cases in the Eastern Bay to 31.

At least eight of these are seasonal workers from Tonga working at Seeka, Ōpōtiki.

This comes after news broke on Sunday that an Ōpōtiki-based Seeka worker from Tonga, based in Ōpōtiki, tested positive for Covid-19 at Whakatāne Hospital over the weekend.

Seeka chief executive Michael Franks said yesterday that seven more of the Tongan workers who are all close contacts with the worker have now tested positive.

He said that the worker had felt unwell overnight on Saturday and was taken to Whakatāne Hospital.

Bay of Plenty District Health Board Covid-19 incident controller Trevor Richardson confirmed that a patient who presented with symptoms at Whakatāne Hospital during the weekend tested positive for Covid-19. He said the patient was admitted briefly before being discharged.

"Staff were wearing the appropriate PPE, and all appropriate health board Covid processes were followed. These measures minimised any risk to staff and members of the public."

Franks said all of the Tongan Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme workers in Ōpōtiki had gone into isolation and crews that had been in recent contact with the worker had been stood down.

"As you would expect, because all of our RSEs are living in close quarters, we've got eight cases now confirmed. All casual and close contacts with the Tongan group have been stood down but they have no cases outside that group at the moment."

He said Seeka was not into its high-pressure work time yet. "We are not quite into the harvesting yet. We have just been tidying up the orchards. In many respects, if there was a convenient time to get it it's right now. Thankfully none of these people are really ill. They've only got mild symptoms."

Though he was not able to confirm what date the Tongan crew had arrived in New Zealand, he said they had not brought the virus into the country but they had contracted it here in the community and they all had current vaccinations.

He said some of them had been travelling around other orchards and in that case, they had shut those down too.

"We just want to do the right thing and take care of our community," he said.

As of this week, Toi te Ora Public Health's website has started breaking down Bay of Plenty's Covid-19 statistics into districts so people can see in more detail how many cases there are in their area.

As of yesterday, the website showed that Whakatane had 13 active cases of Covid-19. Two of these were new cases on Monday and two were new cases yesterday. Whakatāne has had a total of 22 Covid-19 cases since November 12.

Kawerau has three active cases with no new cases this week and has had six cases since November 12.

Ōpōtiki now has 15 active cases with a total of 17 cases reported since November 12.

Visit toiteora.govt.nz/public/covid-19/ to stay updated with latest statistics.

- Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air