Wellington, New Zealand – New Zealand’s first case of coronavirus in the community in more than two months has been identified as the most contagious South African variant, prompting Australia to suspend non-quarantine travel from the neighboring country for at least 72 hours.
A 56-year-old New Zealander, who recently returned from Europe, tested positive for the infectious strain on Saturday, 10 days after completing her mandatory two weeks of isolation.
New Zealand was widely praised for dealing with the pandemic, with only 25 deaths out of 1,927 confirmed virus cases in a population of five million.
The most recent case is New Zealand’s first in the community since mid-November and has been classified as a strain considered to be more transmissible and possibly resistant to COVID-19 vaccines currently being implemented worldwide.
CBS News
“The strain of infection is the South African variant and the source of the infection is very likely to be another return,” said Health Minister Chris Hipkins.
Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said it was a case of “significant concern” and that the growing possibility of transmission has led his government to suspend its “travel bubble” with New Zealand for a minimum of 72 hours.
“This will be done with great care while learning more about the event and the case,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“The changes take effect immediately.”
Hunt urged New Zealanders with a scheduled flight to Australia over the next three days to “reconsider their need to travel” as they will have to quarantine their hotel – like other international arrivals – for up to 14 days on arrival.
The woman is believed to have been infected during quarantine by a person on the same floor as the hotel who tested positive two days before the woman left.
Peter Meecham / AP
The 56-year-old woman traveled to the Northland region, near Auckland, after being released from quarantine and showed symptoms for several days before being tested.
Two people close to her, including her husband, returned negative tests and New Zealand’s director general of health Ashley Bloomfield said they probably avoided getting the disease due to the type of infection.
“She didn’t talk about respiratory symptoms, it was more muscle pain, so she may not have shared or spread the virus too much,” he said.
“I don’t think this is peculiar to this variant, it’s just how it was expressed in this woman.”
The World Health Organization said there is no clear evidence that the South African variant leads to more serious illnesses or a higher death rate, but researchers at the country’s leading government laboratory told CBS News that it appears to be highly resistant antibodies created by previous infections. with the original coronavirus strain.
This fuels fears that it may be resistant to current vaccines, which rely on antibodies to prevent serious infections with the disease.
Another strain of coronavirus, first detected in southern England and already spreading much faster around the world than is believed to be the South African variant, can be more lethal, said the British Prime Minister on Friday.