New Zealand health officials said on Thursday they had identified 14 new cases of coronavirus as the country tackled a recent outbreak that ended a run of more than 100 days with no locally transmitted infections.
Officials also warned they would likely find more cases.
“We fully expect there will be further cases,” New Zealand Health Director Dr Ashley Bloomfield said at a news conference on Thursday.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reiterated that sentiment.
“As we all learned from our first experience with Covid, once you identify a cluster, it grows before it slows down. We should expect this to be the case here,” she said.
All but one of the cases have been transferred locally, and are linked to four confirmed cases in Auckland, the country’s most populous city. The other case is a woman in managed isolation who recently entered the country from the Philippines.
Of the 13 cases transferred locally, three patients are employees of Americold, a refrigerated storage facility where one of the previously reported cases worked. Seven of the cases are family members of Americold employees.
One student from the school also tested positive for the virus, Bloomfield said. The student is in close contact with one of the four cases reported on Tuesday.
What’s happening in New Zealand: Over the weekend, the country – which is held as an example of how the virus is fought – marked 100 days without locally transmitted infections.
But that streak came to an end this week. On Tuesday, New Zealand announced four new local transfer cases – and on Wednesday, Auckland went into a level 3 lockdown for three days.
Parliament was dissolved on Wednesday for the country’s national elections in September, but it was postponed. Ardern has not announced when it will postpone the September 19 election.
New Zealand has recorded more than 1,200 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 22 deaths.
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