As swine flu tightens its grip on the country, two New Zealanders have been quarantined after being caught up in a swine flu scare in China.
One is among 39 Qantas passengers held after another passenger on their Sydney to Shanghai flight tested positive for the H1N1 influenza virus on Wednesday. Details of the other New Zealander are not yet known.
The Qantas passenger is Adair Marshall , the Weekend Herald reported.
She was put into isolation because she was seated near one of four people on flight QF129 whose temperatures were found to be higher than normal.
Mrs Marshall, 51, took two weeks' leave to visit a friend in Shanghai, but now must spend seven days quarantined in a remote motel, despite displaying no flu symptoms. She told the newspaper she and the others being quarantined were put on a bus and driven 90 minutes from the city . She described her situation as "like being in prison" .
Meanwhile, New Zealand's official swine flu tally jumped by a third yesterday to 216, including a woman described as morbidly obese and having respiratory problems, who remains in a critical condition in Wellington Hospital.
She is being kept in isolation in the hospital's intensive care unit.
There are 643 suspected swine flu cases but figures were expected to climb.
Most of the infected were in the three main cities.
Deputy director of public health Darren Hunt said he expected there would be more critical cases of swine flu, more hospital admissions and even deaths. Until now, the virus has not caused any serious medical problems for patients in New Zealand.
Yesterday, Health Minister Tony Ryall announced a switch in policy to control community-level spread. Previously, the strategy had been one of containment.
"Our focus is now moving to helping those people in the community that have the illness.
The Ministry of Health also announced that people with swine flu would be longer routinely be given Tamiflu, with medical officers instead dosing only the seriously ill.
Gisborne, Northland, Taranaki and Otago-Southland would continue with a containment strategy because there were no confirmed cases in those areas.
