WELLINGTON (NEW ZEALAND) – Health authorities in New Zealand said on Saturday that they are probing a new community spread of the coronavirus, the fourth in two weeks, among those who finished mandatory quarantine at a facility in Auckland for travellers who returned from overseas.
A person self-isolating at home in Hamilton tested positive. He was released from a two-week hotel quarantine on Jan. 30 after testing negative twice.
“We consider the public health risk to be low and people in and around Hamilton should not be alarmed,” Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay said.
“We are acting out of an abundance of caution. We are not advising any restrictions or cancellations of events.”
The ministry recently mandated that all overseas travellers who have completed 14 days of quarantine at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland have to go into self-isolation for five more days at home.
In order to determine whether the case has the South African virus variant, genome sequencing has been carried out. Three other cases linked to the hotel have been found to be infected with the new variant.
There were media reports that some community celebrations related to Waitangi Day have been cancelled in Hamilton.