Coronavirus: Today New Zealand has two new confirmed cases of COVID-19

Publish Date
Tuesday, 16 June 2020, 1:20PM

Today New Zealand has two new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the Ministry of Health has reported.

The new cases are two women from the United Kingdom who were allowed to travel to Wellington on compassionate grounds, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says.

Both cases are from the same family. One of the women is in her 30s and the other is in her 40s.

They were visiting a relative in Wellington, who has since died. Bloomfield said the pair drove from Auckland to Wellington for the visit.

The women had been careful not to put anyone at risk, he said, and the women had not stopped for petrol and had gone to the toilet on the side of the road.

"In this instance, the women did everything that was asked of them," Bloomfield says.

The women flew from the UK to Brisbane via Doha and then on to Auckland. They were now in isolation in Wellington. It was possible they picked up the infection in the UK or on the flights, he said.

They were tested yesterday and confirmed positive in results this morning.

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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warned again yesterday that there would be more COVID cases in the future, but hopefully, they would only be at the border.

"I don't want New Zealanders to believe that the battle is over when it is not," she said yesterday.

The total number of confirmed and probable cases since the pandemic began now sits at 1,506.

The total of confirmed cases is 1,156 and the death toll remains at 22.

A total of 1,482 people are reported as having recovered from COVID-19.

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