Passengers on international flights arriving at Dunedin and Queenstown airports are now being met by health officials, as southern health organisations ramp up vigilance following the first official case of Covid-19 in New Zealand.
"That started over the weekend," Southern District Health Board medical officer of health Susan Jack said.
"Pretty much all flights come in from Australia and we are confident in the Australian measures so we do not expect to pick anything up, but we do have a health presence at both those airports now meeting those flights."
The officials would offer another layer of both information and protection, and be able to pick anyone up who might have been missed by Australian border staff, Dr Jack said.
Yesterday, Director-general of Health Ashley Bloomfield said the man with the confirmed case of Covid-19 remained in hospital in Auckland, in an improving condition.
Staff had contacted 18 passengers who had been seated near the man, and they were all in self-isolation.
Those people, who had not yet shown any symptoms of Covid-19, were in Auckland, Nelson and Christchurch.
Dr Bloomfield said the ministry believed the risk of a community outbreak of Covid-19 in New Zealand remained low.
Dr Jack said the Auckland case of Covid-19 made little difference to disease planning in the South, which was already proceeding on a basis that a case would eventually be confirmed in New Zealand.
"Obviously there is a heightened sense now," she said.
"We will continue with our planning; we are making sure GPs are aware and have appropriate personal protective equipment that they need, and we have our processes confirmed in our emergency departments."
Ministry officials would have notified their southern counterparts if anyone the Auckland patient had come into contact with was believed to be in the South, Dr Jack said.
"We are preparing, expecting that at some stage we will get a case, and making sure that all our processes are in place.
"We are still really pushing frequent hand washing, and if you are coughing and sneezing, to do that into the crook of an arm or a clean tissue and to dispose of that immediately; those basic messages remain the same."
National health spokesman Michael Woodhouse said he was not as confident as the Ministry of Health that the risk of a community outbreak was low.
On Saturday, Mr Woodhouse raised the case of a passenger on board the same plane as the confirmed case, who had developed a cough but not been offered a test for the virus.
Yesterday, Mr Woodhouse said that test was now being done, and that he was pleased that health officials would now meet flights at southern airports, "although I thought that should have been done three weeks ago".
A man who was a passenger on the quarantined cruise liner Diamond Princess yesterday became Australia’s first Covid-19 fatality, when he died in Perth.
Worldwide, more than 86,000 cases have been diagnosed, and just under 3000 deaths ascribed to the disease.
