New Zealand identified its first community-spread case of COVID-19 since November on Sunday after a 56-year-old woman tested positive for the strain of coronavirus believed to be from South Africa.
Officials announced that the woman tested positive for COVID-19 after leaving her mandatory two-week isolation after returning to the country from Europe on December 30 for work.
Before leaving the Auckland quarantine facility, the woman had tested negative for the virus twice, COVID-19 Minister Chris Hipkins said: according to Reuters.
Authorities said they believe the woman contracted the more contagious strain from a fellow human in the isolation facility. Hipkins said officials were investigating whether the virus could have spread through the ventilation and air conditioning systems.
Officials found 15 close contacts of the woman and the closest contacts, her husband and hairdresser, tested negative. The test results of the rest of the contacts would come back on Monday, The Guardian reported.
New Zealand last documented a COVID-19 transmission through the community in November, Reuters reported, citing the Department of Health website.
The country is known for having one of the strictest responses to the pandemic, having recorded 2,283 cases and 25 deaths, according to data. Johns Hopkins University.
The community transmission is because several variants of the coronavirus are spreading around the world, including a strain believed to be more contagious, originally discovered in the UK. The South African variant, which is 50 percent more contagious, has been found in at least 20 countries.
US President Biden is expected prohibit non-US citizens who have visited South Africa in the past two weeks after entering and are resetting restrictions for travelers from several countries, including the UK