90% of Tauranga port workers unvaccinated

Stuff reports:

The Government is urgently investigating how 87 unvaccinated port workers were allowed to board a ship that carried 11 Covid-19-positive crew members.

Health authorities were urgently testing 98 Tauranga port workers on Monday, after they were involved in the unloading the container ship Rio de la Plata, which was cleared to dock at the city’s port last week.

Crew members on the boat have tested positive for the more-transmissible Delta strain of Covid-19, and the port workers who unloaded the ship spent days out and about in Tauranga before being asked to self-isolate.

It was confirmed after a Cabinet meeting on Monday afternoon that 23 of the 98 workers had tested negative, and the remaining tests were outstanding. Nine of these workers were fully vaccinated, and two had a single dose of the vaccine.

This is a level of incompetence that makes Kiwibuild look like a stunning success.

Border workers should have been the highest priority for vaccination and every border worker should have been vaccinated by 30 June or moved to a different role.

Vaccines have been available for nine months, and only 10% of port workers have been vaccinated. It’s crazy.