New Zealand reports new cases after being COVID-free

New Zealand reported two new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday, June 16, after it has been COVID-free for three and a half weeks, health authorities said.

The health ministry said the new cases are imported as the patients came from the United Kingdom.

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“The ministry can confirm today two new cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand related to the border as a result of recent travel from the UK. Both cases are connected,” it said in a brief statement.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a media briefing in Wellington the patients were two women from the same family. He added that authorities are now conducting contact tracing, isolating, and testing those who came into contact with the patients.

“A new case is something that we hoped we wouldn’t get, but it is also something that we expected, and we have planned for,” Bloomfield said. “That’s why we have geared up our contact tracing and testing capability to be able to respond rapidly.”

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The patients are aged in their 30s and 40s and arrived in Auckland on June 7. They were allowed on compassionate grounds to leave isolation and travel to Wellington on June 13 after their relative died. There were strict conditions placed on their travel, and they had no contact with anyone during the Auckland-to-Wellington road trip, Bloomfield said.

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New Zealand announced they are COVID-free on June 8 after its last patient recovered, and remaining restrictions on people and businesses were lifted that day.

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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at the time there would almost certainly be further cases given the spread of the COVID-19 overseas. He, however, assured that as long as the new infections came from outside the country and were quickly identified and isolated, the government does not need to reimpose the restrictions.

Only citizens, residents, and some government-sanctioned exemptions are allowed to enter New Zealand. Every arrival must enter two weeks of isolation.

The country recorded a total of 1,506 COVID-19 cases, 22 deaths, and 1,482 recoveries. It is among the first countries to successfully battled the virus, which already infected more than eight million people across the globe.