New Zealand reports two new COVID-19 cases

Wellington, June 21 New Zealand reported two new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, taking the total case number to 1,161 in the country, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

As with the five other cases reported last week after 24 days, the two new cases were recent arrivals from overseas and both were detected within the managed isolation facilities, Xinhua news agency reported citing the statement as saying.

Sunday's first case was the child of the couple announced on Saturday as cases who recently arrived from India. The child was under 2 years old.

The second confirmed case on Sunday was a 59-year-old woman who travelled from Delhi and arrived in Auckland on June 15.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield had reiterated that as New Zealanders returning home from overseas, there were always new cases to expect.

"It is good that the systems are in place to detect these cases. Testing, particularly at the border, will continue to be an important part of our COVID-19 response," said Bloomfield.

New Zealand's laboratories completed 5,950 tests on Saturday, bringing the total completed tests to date to 341,117.

The total number of confirmed cases reported to the World Health Organization was currently 1,161 in the country.

The number of COVID-19 related deaths in the country remained at 22.

( With inputs from IANS )