In New Zealand, which had gone 24 days without a single case of COVID-19, two cases were confirmed on June 16th.
→ Covid 19 coronavirus: New Zealand has two new Covid-19 cases
The two women who tested positive this time (reportedly family) had returned from the UK together.
The problem was that the rules were not strictly followed.
Currently, New Zealand allows citizens or permanent residents to return home, but they are required to quarantine in government-designated accommodation for 14 days on arrival.
The couple, who returned from the UK on June 7, received special permission due to the sudden death of a family member and left Auckland with just under a week of quarantine. After driving from Auckland to Wellington, they were tested and found to be positive.
Normally, tests are required to be taken three and 13 days after arriving in New Zealand, but this was not implemented. In addition, one of the two people was already showing mild symptoms.
The problem was with the administration, who did not carry out testing during the Auckland quarantine as per established rules, and Prime Minister Jacinda was also upset.
In response to this incident, we have decided to discontinue the special measure of shortening the isolation period due to the critical condition, death, or funeral of a family member.
Opposition parties have also called for the resignation of Health Minister David Clark.
320 people are being tracked
The day after the two positive cases were discovered, no new cases of infection were found, but it was found that 320 people had had some kind of contact with the positive cases, such as people who were on the same plane, airport staff at the time of entry, and at the hotel where they were quarantined.
All of these people will be identified and closely tracked to see if they test positive in the future.
→ Ministry to hunt down anyone from the flight or hotel of new cases as 'close contacts'
According to the Ministry of Health website, contacts include not only people who had direct contact with a positive patient, but also people who were in the same room, stayed in the same building, sat within two metres of the patient on an airplane, and staff on that airplane.
The biggest concern is the spread of infection among people returning from overseas.
After going through a strict lockdown, New Zealand has been successful in eliminating the new coronavirus, and we can only hope that it does not spread any further.
