New Zealand Government funds inflight coronavirus transmission study

New Zealand's Ministry of Health, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, in conjunction with ESR Strategic Innovation Fund and New Zealand's Health Research Council, funded (19-Nov-2020) 'A case study of extended in-flight transmission of SARSCoV-2 en route to Aotearoa New Zealand', outlining possible inflight coronavirus transmission of arrivals. According to the study, seven out of 86 passengers who arrived in New Zealand on the same service on 29-Sep-2020 tested positive during their stay in managed isolation and quarantine. The seven passengers originated from five different countries prior to travelling on the same service from Dubai to Auckland. Information about their journeys, disease progression and virus genomic data was used to assess possible points of infection. All seven SARS-CoV-2 genomes were genetically identical, with the exception of a single mutation in one case, and all genomes had five signature mutations seen in only six other genomes from the more than 155,000 genomes sequenced globally. Four of the six related genome sequences were from Switzerland, the country of origin of the suspected index case. The report concluded at least four inflight transmission events of coronavirus likely took place. [more - original PR]