New Zealand has announced 14 new cases of COVID-19, with 13 of those from the community in Auckland.
All 13 cases are linked to the four people who were reported as confirmed cases on Tuesday.
The other case is a woman in managed isolation. It brings New Zealand’s total number of active coronavirus cases to 36.
Of the new positive cases in the community, three of them are staff members at the Americold warehouse facility in Mt Wellington where a man in his 50s tested positive for the virus on Tuesday. Seven cases are family members of these employees.
Another person who has tested positive is an employee of Finance Now, where one of the original confirmed community cases is employed. A family member of that employee also tested positive.
One of the cases is a student at Mt Albert Grammar School. There is one more probable case in the community linked to the new outbreak.
One of the people who has tested positive visited an aged care facility in the Waikato. The visit was when the person was not displaying symptoms.
Given the community cases are linked, officials are treating them as a cluster.
“We do expect there will be further cases,” said Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.
Bloomfield has directed that all new cases of coronavirus are to be managed in a quarantine facility.
He reminded the public that there is “no blame or shame” in having COVID-19.
“The virus is the problem not people who contracted it,” he said.
