From RNZ
The Ministry of Health is seeking more information after a person who had travelled from New Zealand tested positive for Covid-19 in South Korea.
The Korean Centres of Disease Control and Prevention says it is presumed the person caught the virus while in New Zealand, but under what circumstances is not known at this point.
"We had one similar case before and that turned out to be a false positive," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking today. "In this case I will be checking in with our health officials but given of course the chance or likelihood that someone could have picked this up in transit or travel, or a number of other factors, it's not something health officials have raised alarm bells with me at this stage, but I will be following up on it this morning."
It is unknown how long the person had been in South Korea before being tested.
The person was one of 13 new imported cases in South Korea on Friday, of which three were tested on arrival, and the others while in mandatory self-isolation.
A ministry spokesperson said they had been advised of the case by South Korean health authorities, and are following up.
Two days ago, South Korea reported 113 newly confirmed cases of Covid-19 during a 24-hour period - its first daily jump above 100 in nearly four months.
The rise was expected as health authorities had forecast a temporary spike driven by imported infections found among cargo-ship crews and hundreds of South Korean construction workers flown out of virus-ravaged Iraq.
The figures released by South Korea's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention brought the national caseload to 14,092 at that time, including 298 deaths.
