Wellington:
New Zealand wellness officials mentioned on Sunday they had been investigating what they mentioned was most likely the country’s very first neighborhood coronavirus case, in months in a lady who not too long ago returned from overseas.
The 56-year-old, who returned to New Zealand on Dec. 30, tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19 days following leaving a two-week mandatory quarantine at the border exactly where she had twice tested adverse.
“We are working under the assumptions that this is a positive case and that it is a more transmissible variant, either the one identified first in South Africa or the UK, or potentially Brazil – or another transmissible variant,” Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a news conference.
It is not identified how the lady was infected or no matter if the infection is new, Bloomfield mentioned. But considering that the lady tested positive many days following becoming released from quarantine and has been at residence, the authorities are treating it as a “probable community case”.
New Zealand, 1 of the most prosperous created nations in controlling the spread of the pandemic, final recorded a neighborhood coronavirus transmission on Nov. 18, according to the Health Ministry web page.
A difficult lockdown and geographical isolation helped New Zealand practically do away with the novel coronavirus inside its borders.
The nation of 5 million people today has had only 1,927 confirmed instances. But with the pandemic raging globally, more people today are returning to New Zealand with infections, like the new variants, raising issues the virus could spread in the neighborhood once again.
The lady, who lives in Northland on New Zealand’s North Island, quarantined upon arrival in a managed isolation facility in Auckland exactly where many the extremely virulent COVID-19 instances have been recorded in current weeks, Bloomfield mentioned.
“This is a reminder to all of us that the pandemic continues and that this is a tricky virus,” he mentioned.
Social media customers rushed to express concern and aggravation about the new case, with 1 user describing the reactions on Twitter as a “collective groan”.
On Sunday, there had been eight new infections, all returning travellers quarantined at the border, bringing active instances amongst these quarantined to 79, the ministry mentioned in a statement.
Pressure has been mounting on Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government to vaccinate the population, but New Zealand has mentioned the majority of its population would only be vaccinated in the second half of the year.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)