Latest wave all people arriving from abroad
A week ago, New Zealand was Covidfree. After 24 consecutive days of no new cases announced, two women tested positive for the virus.
There are now nine cases of the coronavirus nationally. None of those is receiving hospital-level care.
All of them arrived from outside our borders, as the pandemic worsens globally and New Zealanders rush home — at double the rate of last month.
Some flights coming in were also coming from countries with higher rates of Covid-19, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
To date NZ has had a total of 1513 confirmed and probable Covid cases.
Here’s what we know about the nine infected:
Case 9, June 22
A man in his 30s who arrived in from India on June 15 on an Air
India flight. Despite not reporting any symptoms, he tested positive for Covid-19 on his third day of managed isolation at the Grand Millennium hotel in Auckland.
He and his wife, with whom he had travelled, were then moved to Jet Park Hotel for quarantine. She had not reported any symptoms and the ministry was following up with her yesterday.
Case 8, June 22
The teenage girl’s only symptom of Covid-19 was a runny nose.
She arrived on June 13 from Islamabad via Melbourne, travelling with her siblings and her mother. Her family have been tested.
They had been in isolation at the Auckland Novotel hotel, where the teen tested positive on the third day of her stay. She and her family have now been transferred to Jet Park Hotel for quarantine.
Case 7, June 21
A 59-year-old woman who arrived in Auckland on June 15.
She and her partner were on flight AI1316 from Delhi and were tested on their third day in managed isolation at the Grand Millennium Hotel.
His test results had not yet returned. The pair have been moved to quarantine at Jet Park Hotel.
Case 6, June 21
A child under the age of 2 whose parents, cases 5 and 4, were announced on June 20.
The trio were on flight AI1306, a repatriation flight from India to bring New Zealanders home.
They arrived in New Zealand on June 5 and were moved from the Grand Millennium to the Jet Park Hotel when they tested positive.
Cases 5 & 4, June 21
A couple in their 20s who returned to New Zealand on a repatriation flight from India organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
They arrived in the country on June 5 on Air India flight AI1306.
The couple showed no symptoms and returned a positive result after being tested on day 12 of isolation.
They were then moved to from the Grand Millennium to quarantine at Jet Park Hotel in Auckland.
Case 3 June 18
A man in his 60s who had no symptoms of the virus when he arrived in New Zealand.
He flew from Pakistan to Doha and on to Melbourne on June 11, and then to Auckland on Flight NZ124 on June 13. The man developed symptoms on June 15 and was tested the next day. He wore a mask on all of his flights and travelled with one other person who is considered a close contact.
The two are now at the Jet Park Hotel quarantine facility in Auckland.
Cases 2 & 1, June 16
Two sisters who arrived in the country from Britain to see their dying mother in Wellington.
The women, one in her 30s and one in her 40s, arrived together on June 7 on a flight from the United Kingdom via Doha and Brisbane.
They were taken to Auckland’s Ellerslie Novotel hotel for mandatory quarantine.
On June 12, with their mother’s condition rapidly deteriorating, the sisters applied for a compassionate exemption to their quarantine for a chance to say goodbye.
Their mother died that night, but their exemption was fast-tracked and granted.
On June 13, the sisters were released early from Government quarantine and permitted to drive from the city of Auckland to Wellington before being diagnosed or even tested.
The pair drive 640km via private vehicle to Wellington, where they were both tested at a community assessment centre as part of their exemption plan.
Both tested positive for the coronavirus.