Earlier, 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.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (Photo: IANS)
New Zealand on Tuesday reported 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.
The new infections are a set back to New Zealand, which lifted all social and economic restrictions except border controls last week, declaring it had no new or active cases of the coronavirus, one of the first countries in the world to return to pre-pandemic normality.
Earlier, 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.
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During a press conference, the director general of health said said that the two new cases were women aged in their 30s and 40s who visited a dying parent in Wellington.
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.
On June 8, New Zealand lifted all domestic coronavirus restrictions after its final COVID-19 patient was given the all clear.
Earlier, Ardern had said that the sacrifices made by New Zealanders, including a drastic seven-week lockdown that helped curb infection rates, had been rewarded now that there were no active cases in the country.
The Prime Minister said modelling showed the economy would operate at just 3.8 percent below normal at Level 1, compared with a 37 percent impairment at Level 4 lockdown.
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