New Zealand has reported its first locally acquired coronavirus case in months after a returned traveller tested positive to COVID-19 a week after leaving hotel quarantine.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said that a 56-year-old woman had been isolating after returning from a trip to Europe.
She was tested twice which returned negative results after the initial 14 days in quarantine, but developed mild symptoms two days after leaving quarantine.
She tested positive just ten days later.
“We are working on the assumption this is a positive case and a more transmissible variant,” Dr Bloomfield said.
“We need people to be vigilant and get with the programme.”
NZ health authorities are now contact tracing visitors to almost 30 venues, with almost 13 guests who stayed at the hotel the same time as the woman had tested positive for COVID-19.
This is the first community case of COVID-19 since November 18th last year.
This article originally appeared on Over60.