Rio De La Plata has currently sailed at sea off the coast of Tauranga. This big-size container ship has confirmed 11 of 21 crew members on-boards are positive for COVID-19.

After examining symptoms of the eleven crew members, it’s likely to have active cases of COVID-19, but further results are expected today! Once it’s determined that how many of the crew are positive, required safety measures can be applied for all of them to prevent spread out.

In Tauranga, COVID-19 tests were conducted by public healthcare workers from the crew as part of the needs for entry for their vessel to Napier – the container ship’s next stop.

Every crew member in it is reported to be in good health, with none reporting any positive symptoms. No crew members were released into port side while the suspected container ship was getting unloaded in the coast of Tauranga.

This ship is mainly suspected to a positive case of COVID-19 because a pilot from Australia onboard it in Queensland (in the month of July). Afterwards, he has developed symptoms and was examined positive for COVID-19 for 9 days after being aboard the ship. This infectious pilot is confirmed to have Delta features, but he hasn’t been linked to any other positive cases in Queensland.

After such unexpected incident of a pilot, loading of this container ship was temporarily halted on August 4 Wednesday) in the coast of Tauranga. A lab test was conducted on that day, cleared the ship, and unloading was permitted to resume the next day.

The usual precautions and protocols are exercised to manage any sort of risk in the coast. As an extra precautionary measure, active port workers were also evaluated and ordered to stood down until a negative result returned. COVID-19 testing for those port workers is also arranged at the port this early morning. Stay tuned for more news related to ships and the marine industry.