Coronavirus: woman who flew from Singapore to New Zealand after Italy holiday tests positive for Covid-19, airline confirms
- The passenger travelled from Singapore to New Zealand on February 25 and subsequently tested positive for coronavirus, Air New Zealand says
- One passenger who passed through Palmerston North airport on the same day criticised the lack of hand sanitiser or soap in women’s bathrooms
The passenger, the airline said, travelled on flight NZ283 on February 25 from Singapore, before travelling from Auckland to Palmerston North on flight NZ5103 on March 2. The woman returned to Auckland the same day on flight NZ8114.
“We are working closely with the [New Zealand] Ministry of Health and government agencies to identify and proactively contact customers who travelled on the Singapore service and the two regional flights,” the airline said.
According to The New Zealand Herald, the woman is now in self-isolation at home and her partner is also in isolation after showing symptoms, the paper added.
Other passengers on the flight have since reacted with a mixture of fear and frustration. One woman told the Herald that her 79-year-old grandmother had been on the same flight and was now concerned she may have caught the coronavirus and in turn infected her friends at home in New Zealand.
“She was very scared about the whole thing anyway but now she’s terrified,” the woman said. “It’s actually a bit late [for health officials to get in touch] because she’s been going to aqua aerobics with all these other people. She’s worried she’s spreading it around.”
New Zealand has recorded only two cases of the coronavirus but Megan Hands, who was at Palmerston North airport the same day as the coronavirus-infected traveller, took to Twitter to criticise lack of sanitary measures.