New Zealand reports new COVID-19 cases

New Zealand confirmed seven new cases of coronavirus on Saturday, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The new reported cases, all from group transmission, took a total caseload of 1,258 cases, reports Xinhua News Agency.

Six were already linked to previous cluster outbreak incidents, and one remained under investigation, it was said.

The total number of active Covid-19 cases in New Zealand was 56, of which 37 came from the recent community outbreak, and 19 came imported into controlled isolation and quarantine facilities, the Ministry said.

Of the 37 incidents, 35 were linked to the identified cluster and two remained under investigation, but are suspected to be linked to the same cluster, the Ministry said.

The National Tracing Service had 1,090 close contacts reported with 934 contacted on Saturday morning, and they were all self-isolating, the Ministry said.

On Friday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared the Alert Level 3 lockout for the Auckland area and the Alert Level 2 restriction for the rest of the country to continue for 12 days until August 26.

New Zealand went to a month-long National Warning Level 4 lockout at the end of March, and announced the early success of the Covid 19 war in June.

New cases have resurfaced in the country earlier this week after a period of 102 days.