New Zealand Confirms Two New Cases Ending Coronavirus Free Run
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16 June 2020 16:55 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - New Zealand said on Tuesday, June 16, that it has two new cases of the coronavirus, both related to recent travel from the UK, ending a 24-day streak of no new infections in the country.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had warned that new cases may come up in the future as New Zealanders return home, and some others were allowed in under special conditions.
The two new cases were women aged in their 30s and 40s who visited a dying parent in Wellington, the director-general of health said in a news conference.
Read: Australia on Track to See Coronavirus Largely Gone by July
Both women arrived in New Zealand on June 7 from the UK, via Doha and Brisbane and were in an isolation facility in Auckland. They were given special permission to leave the facility to visit the dying parent in Wellington. Both are self-isolating now, Ashley Bloomfield said.
This takes the total number of cases recorded in the country to 1,506 cases, deaths from the disease remain at 22.
New Zealand’s 5 million people emerged from the pandemic while big economies such as Brazil, Britain, India and the United States continue to grapple with the spread of the virus.
This was largely due to strict restrictions in which most businesses were shut and everyone except essential workers had to stay home.
Ardern has been wary of saying the country was ‘COVID-free’ as the global pandemic raged around the world and new cases were likely to come to the country.
“I don’t want New Zealanders to believe that the battle is over when it is not,” she said earlier this week.
