New Zealand records new COVID-19 cases, brings back restrictions

Wellington: New Zealand on Tuesday confimed new cases of locally acquired COVID-19 after going for 102 days without any domestic transmission.

New Zealand director general of health Ashley Bloomfield said,  "We actually have four confirmed caes of COVID-19 in one family acquired from an unknown source. The first case to present was a person in their fifties who lives in South Auckland. That person was swabbed yesterday when they presented to their general practitioner with symptoms. That test was processed twice and returned positive and a second swab today also returned a positive result. Importantly, the person has no history of overseas travel. And as per our usual protocol, we would, very closely with Auckland regional public health, to interview the person. We've sprung into action and in fact, all those family members residing in the same household, there were another six, were all tested and three of the six have returned positive test results. The other three were negative."

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said four people from one family in South Auckland had been confirmed to have acquired the coronavirus. Ardern announced that Auckland will move to alert level 3 restrictions from noon on Wednesday for three days. The rest of the country was also be moved to alert level 2 restriction from Wednesday, she said.