Wellington, January 24: New Zealand has reported its first case of community transmission in more than two months, although there was no immediate evidence that the coronavirus was spreading. Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said Sunday the case was a 56-year-old woman who recently returned from Europe.

Like other returning travellers, she spent 14 days in quarantine and twice tested negative before being returning home on Jan. 13. She later developed symptoms and tested positive.

He said health officials will conduct genome testing but are working under the assumption that the case is a more transmissible variant of the virus. He said they are investigating to see whether its possible she caught the disease from another returning traveller who was staying in the same quarantine facility. COVID-19 Lockdown in UK Extended Till July 17 Amid Rising Coronavirus Cases, Visitors Need To Undergo Quarantine for At Least 10 Days.

New Zealand has eliminated community transmission of the virus, at least for now. Bloomfield said officials are ramping up contact tracing and testing efforts and hope to have more information about the case in the coming days.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)