A female traveler from the Philippines is among the 14 new coronavirus cases in New Zealand, the country’s Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Thursday, August 13.

“There is one new case of COVID-19 to report in managed isolation – a woman in her 30s who arrived in New Zealand from the Philippines on August 8. She has been in managed isolation at the Distinction Hotel and tested positive around Day 3 of her stay,” announced New Zealand’s MOH.

“Managed isolation” refers to the 14-day quarantine required of travelers entering New Zealand. Cases in managed isolation are different from cases in the community, which could mean local transmission of COVID-19.

The other 13 new cases are considered community cases. All of them are in Auckland and linked to 4 previous coronavirus cases from the same family, said the MOH.

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New Zealand recently broke its 102-day streak of having no community cases of COVID-19, and is stepping up moves to control the spread of the virus.

Even before this 102-day streak was broken, however, New Zealand continued to have cases in managed isolation.

Based on the MOH website, 4 out of 12 cases in managed isolation in the first two weeks of August were travelers from the Philippines. The MOH also reported the following cases from the Philippines in August:

• August 2: “A woman in her 40s who arrived in New Zealand on August 1 from Manila via Hong Kong”
  
• August 5: “A man in his 20s who arrived in New Zealand on July 23 from the Philippines via Hong Kong” and “a woman in her 40s who arrived in New Zealand on August 1 from the Philippines via Hong Kong”

These imported cases come as New Zealand battles a new spike in community cases, with police helping implement a 3-day lockdown in Auckland. New Zealand is one of the world’s models in fighting COVID-19.

New Zealand has 1,238 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 22 deaths, as of Thursday morning. The country has a population of around 5 million. – Rappler.com