COVID-19: New Zealand reports 1st community case in months

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said on Sunday the case was a 56-year-old woman who recently returned from Europe.

Wellington: New Zealand has reported its first case of community transmission in more than two months, although there was no immediate evidence that the coronavirus was spreading.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said on Sunday the case was a 56-year-old woman who recently returned from Europe.

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Like other returning travellers, she spent 14 days in quarantine and twice tested negative before being returning home on January 13. She later developed symptoms and tested positive.

He said health officials will conduct genome testing but are working under the assumption that the case is a more transmissible variant of the virus.

He said they are investigating to see whether its possible she caught the disease from another returning traveller who was staying in the same quarantine facility.

New Zealand has eliminated community transmission of the virus, at least for now. Bloomfield said officials are ramping up contact tracing and testing efforts and hope to have more information about the case in the coming days.