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New Zealand reports three new COVID-19 local cases, first since January
New Zealand's minister for COVID-19 response, Chris Hipkins, said the three cases were a couple and their daughter in Auckland, and that genomic testing was being conducted to see if the family's infection was linked to any highly infectious variants.
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A police officer directs a driver wanting to leave the city at a COVID-19 check point setup at the southern boundary in Auckland on Aug.14. New Zealand rushed to track the source of a sudden return of the coronavirus as the number of new cases in its biggest city rose to 17 and officials warned more infections were inevitable.
(AFP/David Rowland)
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ew Zealand on Sunday reported three new locally acquired COVID-19 cases, the country's first since late January, when a returned traveller tested positive after leaving quarantine.
New Zealand's minister for COVID-19 response, Chris Hipkins, said the three cases were a couple and their daughter in Auckland, and that genomic testing was being conducted to see if the family's infection was linked to any highly infectious variants.
The new cases, the first since Jan. 24, forced Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to rush back to the capital Wellington, skipping a gay pride event in Auckland she was due to attend on Sunday afternoon.
"Our system has swung into action. We are gathering all of the facts as quickly as we can. And the system that's served us so well in the past is really gearing up to do so again," Hipkins told a hastily called media conference.
New Zealand - which had gone more than two months without infection before the January outbreak - is set to start inoculating its 5 million people against the new coronavirus on Feb. 20, after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine earlier than anticipated.
Meanwhile, China reported seven new coronavirus cases in the mainland for Feb. 13, compared to eight cases a day earlier, the health commission said on Sunday.
All of the new cases were imported infections, the National Health Commission said in a statement. New asymptomatic infections, which China does not classify as confirmed COVID-19 cases, rose to 17 from 14 a day earlier.
China saw a major resurgence of the disease in January, when a cluster emerged in the northern province of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing.
The disease spread to northeastern Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces in the country's worst outbreak since March, triggering an aggressive package of measures including lockdowns in the worst-hit areas to curb the spread of the virus.
But data from recent days adds to evidence that China was able to effectively stamp out the latest wave of infections and avoid another full-blown COVID-19 crisis heading into the current Lunar New Year holiday.
As of Saturday, mainland China had 89,763 confirmed coronavirus cases, the health authority said. The COVID-19 death toll remained at 4,636.
