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AUCKLAND (REUTERS) – New Zealand health officials said on Sunday (January 24) that they were investigating what they said was likely the country’s first community coronavirus case in months, in a woman who recently returned from abroad.
The 56-year-old, who returned to New Zealand on December 30, tested positive for the virus that causes Covid-19 days after leaving a mandatory two-week quarantine at the border where she had given two negative results.
“We are working on the assumption that this is a positive case and that it is a more transmissible variant, whether it is the one first identified in South Africa or the UK, or potentially Brazil, or another transmissible variant,” said Director General of Health Ashley . Bloomfield said at a press conference.
It is not known how the woman got infected or if the infection is new, said Dr. Bloomfield.
But since the woman tested positive several days after being released from quarantine and has been at her home, authorities are treating it as a “probable community case.”
New Zealand, one of the most successful developed nations in controlling the spread of the pandemic, last recorded a community transmission of coronavirus on November 18, according to the Health Ministry website.
A harsh blockade and geographic isolation helped New Zealand to virtually eliminate the new coronavirus within its borders.
The country of 5 million people has had only 1,927 confirmed cases.
But with the pandemic around the world, more people are returning to New Zealand with infections, including newer variants, raising concerns that the virus could spread again in the community.
The woman, who lives in Northland on New Zealand’s North Island, was quarantined upon arrival at a managed isolation facility in Auckland, where several highly virulent Covid-19 cases have been recorded in recent weeks, said Dr. Bloomfield.
“This is a reminder to all of us that the pandemic continues and that this is a complicated virus,” he said.
Social media users were quick to express concern and frustration over the new case, with one user describing the reactions on Twitter as a “collective groan.”
On Sunday, there were eight new infections, all returning travelers quarantined at the border, bringing active cases among those in quarantine to 79, the ministry said in a statement.
Pressure has increased on Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government to vaccinate the population, but New Zealand has said most of its population will only be vaccinated in the second half of the year.
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