New Zealand ends Covid-free run with two cases from UK

New Zealand has recorded its first new cases of coronavirus for 24 days after two women who arrived in the country from Britain were found to be infected.

The pair were released early from government quarantine and permitted to drive from the city of Auckland to Wellington, the capital – nearly 650km away – before being diagnosed or even tested, health officials said.

Their trip was an approved exemption from the mandatory isolation period for new arrivals to the country in order to visit a dying parent. The women had “done everything right” and had not put other members of the public at risk, said Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand’s director-general of health, on Tuesday.

But the news of the women’s travel forced the government to suspend its policy of granting compassionate exemptions to its quarantine rules.

“It will only be reinstated once the government has confidence in the system,” said David Clark, the health minister, in a statement. Officials had already announced that no one in future would be permitted to leave quarantine facilities without a negative Covid-19 test, as the women had.

After both women tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday, one reported that in hindsight she had been experiencing symptoms, but had attributed them to a pre-existing medical condition.

The pair mark New Zealand’s first new cases of Covid-19 for more than three weeks, and were diagnosed one week after the last known case in the country had recovered.

The discovery of the new cases came one week after all domestic restrictions on the country were lifted, with Bloomfield warning at the time that more cases of the virus would inevitably arise as people infected with it crossed the border.

The women – one aged in her 30s and the other in her 40s – had arrived in Auckland on a flight from the UK via Brisbane, Australia, on 7 June, Bloomfield said. All new arrivals to the country – only New Zealanders, their families, and essential workers are currently permitted to cross the border – are required to spend two weeks in managed isolation at a hotel.

But six days after the women arrived, Bloomfield said they travelled from Auckland to Wellington “in a private vehicle” after they were granted a compassionate exemption to do so and made a safety plan with officials. They had not been tested for Covid-19 at the time.

The pair had made the drive of approximately eight hours without refuelling their vehicle or disembarking for any reason, including to use public toilets, he said.

“They had no contact with anybody else during that trip,” added Bloomfield.

He was “not nervous” that the women had infected anyone else, adding that they would now remain in self-isolation with a relative in Wellington. Those permitted to leave the government-run isolation hotels on compassionate grounds are allowed to grieve with their families – but not to attend funerals.

All those on the women’s Air New Zealand flight to Brisbane, including crew, as well as staff and guests at the Novotel Ellerslie hotel in Auckland – where they were initially in quarantine – including staff, would be tested and isolated.

A guest at the same hotel – who was also in quarantine – told Television New Zealand that she had not been tested before she left the facility. Those in quarantine are meant to receive Covid-19 swabs on the third and 12th days of their 14-day isolation period.

“I have asked the Director General to consider if there are any other measures we can put in place to strengthen our health protections at the border,” Clark, the health minister, said.

But the women who were later diagnosed “did everything that was asked of them,” Bloomfield said, and it was “not surprising” that cases of the virus had entered New Zealand from the UK, where “active infections” remained.

“We should not be complacent, we need to remain vigilant,” Bloomfield said. “There is a pandemic raging outside our shores.”

The country has recorded less than 1,500 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and 22 deaths, after a strict and early national lockdown which has drawn praise for Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister.