New Zealand reports 14 new coronavirus cases as country fears worse still to come
New Zealand health authorities have reported 14 new coronavirus cases - including 13 linked to one household in Auckland.
The additional case is a returned traveller who is in a quarantine facility.
New Zealand’s 102-day run without any community transmission of the virus came to an end earlier this week after four people from the same household tested positive in Auckland.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she's expecting the situation to worsen before it improves.
"Modelling suggests that we will still see more positive cases,” she said.
“Again, at this stage, though, at this stage, heartening to see them in one cluster, which I think is a take home from this morning.”
The Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield confirmed to reporters in Wellington that authorities are treating the 13 cases as a cluster.
"What we know about clusters as we have found out in the past is that they do continue to grow,” he said.
“So we fully expect there will be further cases. There are some symptomatic people, of course, they have been tested, they are in isolation and all appropriate steps being taken.”
He said all confirmed cases will be managed in a quarantine facility.
Huge queues of carers lined up outside testing centres around Auckland and in the city of Rotorua.
Authorities on Tuesday had confirmed four cases of the virus in one Auckland household from an unknown source.
On Wednesday, Ms Ardern said she is delaying the dissolution of Parliament – as the country gears up for an election – in case politicians are needed at short notice during this outbreak.
The cases this week were the first known local transmission of the virus in New Zealand in 103 days.