New Zealand reports 11 COVID-19 cases from large group of intl fishermen

WELLINGTON - New Zealand reported 11 imported COVID-19 cases from a large group of international fishermen on Tuesday, days after they arrived in Christchurch.

About 440 fishermen from Russia and Ukraine arrived in New Zealand on two charted flights, with the first arriving from Moscow via Singapore on Friday. Most of the 237 people onboard have been under isolation at the government-managed Sudima Hotel, near Christchurch Airport.

The hotel was in lockdown since the cases were found on Tuesday.

Another 14 cases were "under further investigation," according to the Ministry of Health.

All these cases were imported and they were detected as part of the routine day three testing, the ministry said.

Before the reporting of the 11 positive cases, the ministry reported one new imported case of COVID-19 earlier on Tuesday, and there are no new community cases.

This imported case arrived on Oct 7 from Kenya via Dubai and was taken to a managed isolation facility in Auckland.

The country's total number of confirmed cases is now 1,531.

Five previously reported cases are now considered to have recovered, bringing the country's total number of active cases to 33.