The New Zealand Merchant Service Guild is calling for mandatory testing for all incoming boat and ship crews, to protect port workers.
This comes after nine crew members on board the Mattina container ship, currently in quarantine in Bluff, tested positive for Covid-19.
The Marshall Islands-flagged vessel came into port on Sunday night and all 21 crew members were tested on Monday morning after two crew members initially reported having symptoms.
Health officials have determined that the only local port member who had contact with the ship crew is the South Port pilot, who went aboard the ship as it entered the port.
Pilots, who are represented by the NZ Merchant Service Guild, are required to board vessels of this size when berthing. The pilot wore appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and was fully vaccinated.
Vice-president Captain Iain MacLeod said the crew aboard the Mattina would most likely not have been tested if crew members had not reported symptoms.
This would have put port workers, from harbour pilots to the stevedores unloading the ship, at risk, he said.
MacLeod was himself in isolation after the owners of the last ship he captained would not allow health officials to test the crew when it berthed in New Zealand.
Shipping companies were concerned about the perceived commercial risk of testing crews, as positive results would mean lengthy paperwork and the ship would be quarantined, slowing down the supply chain, he said.PlayUnmuteCurrent Time 0:06/Duration 0:14Loaded: 100.00% FullscreenSTARBOARD MARITIME INTELLIGENCEStarboard Maritime Intelligence tracking data shows how the Mattina’s Covid-19 risk level changed as it travelled to New Zealand, via Singapore.
“We’ve been pushing for this since this thing [Covid-19] started.”
MacLeod had been in contact with the harbour pilot who was able to plan his work on the ship, thanks to the crew reporting symptoms ahead of their arrival.
The pilot worked from the edge of the bridge, did not enter the boat, and communicated with the crew via radio, he said.
Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan said at a press conference on Tuesday that the ship had docked in Fremantle near Perth between July 10 and 12. He said the ship had originally sailed from Jakarta, Indonesia.
McGowan said staff who interacted with the vessel did so while wearing appropriate PPE.
“I want to stress that it is standard operating procedure to treat every ship that visits [Western Australia] as if it may be carrying the virus. That is: All workers who have contact with any vessel must wear appropriate PPE – masks and gloves – and take all necessary precautions.”
He said the state’s chief health officer had deemed any risk associated with the ship as low. As a precaution, anyone who may have come into contact with it while in port at Fremantle was being contacted and interviewed by public health officials to arrange tests and quarantine. This was being done out of an “abundance of caution”, McGowan said.
As a captain,MacLeod said a ship was the last place in the world you wanted a positive Covid-19 case, and he wouldn’t be surprised if the remaining crew members also picked up the virus.
“Once you’re on the ship, there’s nowhere you can go. It’s an inevitability.
“At the end of the day, it’s the ship company’s responsibility to look after their staff,” he said.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson confirmed that testing only took place when there was a crew change, if the crew wanted to get off the ship, or if the ship required assistance – “such as in the Mattina’s case.”
The three crew members the pilot may have been in contact with returned negative results, and he was therefore not required to self-isolate.
All 21 crew members would remain on the ship while the ministry and the Southern District Health Board determined the next steps, the spokesperson said, adding that eight of the nine positive crew members were symptomatic.
The board and its public health unit would monitor the crew members via telephone, and plans were in place should they need advanced medical care.
Genome sequencing was under way to determine which Covid-19 variant the crew had picked up.
The Mattina remains in quarantine in a secure area of the port, which is inaccessible to members of the public and fenced off.
South Port acting chief executive Geoff Finnerty said workers had been able to continue ground-based operations outside the exclusion zone, which had minimal impact on activities.
The ship would remain in the port until health officials had released the crew from quarantine, he said, adding that the next container ship was scheduled to arrive on the evening of July 31.
The Mattina is operated by MSC, a global container shipping company, and was carrying exchange containers, according to South Port’s shipping schedule.
A spokesperson for the company’s New Zealand office said MSC was unable to operate the ship or share any information about its crew until it received advice from the Ministry of Health.
The spokesperson declined to make any further comment.
The Southern District Health Board announced on Tuesday that 100,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses had been delivered in Southland and Otago, as vaccination teams prepared to ramp up jabs in the coming weeks.
Vaccine rollout incident controller Hamish Brown said the district’s 30 vaccination clinics were expected to grow to 120, with pharmacies and practices coming on board so no-one would be more than an hour away from a vaccination site.