By Angela Beswick
A group of passengers quarantined after a health scare on a flight from Tokyo this morning have been allowed to leave the airport.
Air New Zealand flight NZ90 arrived at Auckland International Airport around 9:20 today, with 60 passengers on board reporting flu-like symptoms.
Passengers, seen wearing face masks, were not allowed to leave the Boeing 777-200, while the airline informed the Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS).
Shortly before midday all 274 passengers had been removed from the plane and separated into two rooms.
One was cleared and the passengers allowed to leave the airport, while another thought to be infected were kept in a makeshift quarantine.
ARPHS confirmed just before 1pm that all passengers had been released.
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The passengers in question have presented with symptoms such as coughs, which may be colds or may be flu. However, many did not display the fever which would indicate an influenza-like illness," ARPHS spokesperson Jessie Sampson said.
"The passengers, who are unaffected or well, have now been cleared and have been able to leave the airport or continue on their journeys."
Health Minister Tony Ryall was briefed on the situation earlier this morning, but said it was unlikely passengers had contracted anything worse than the seasonal flu.
“It is Japan’s flu season, and there are no reports of new strains of flu there,” he said.
Unconfirmed reports suggested some of the passengers were teenage students from Tokyo.
However a spokesman for Tauranga-based homestay service Let’s Stay Homestay confirmed to 3 News its 84 boys onboard the plane were okay.
The age and nationalities of the affected passengers on the flight have yet to be established.
Japan is currently experiencing a major flu epidemic - as at February 5 more than 2.1 million people were reported to have had the flu.
That number had jumped by 380,000 cases on the previous week.
Most of those infected were found to have the A strain of the virus, known in Japan as the "Hong Kong" strain.
3 News