Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has revealed how she felt when she was first informed of the new community cases in Auckland almost two weeks ago.
Ardern had been campaigning in Whanganui for the upcoming election when she received the news that four family members in south Auckland had tested positive for COVID-19 - more than 100 days after the last case of community transmission was recorded in New Zealand.
Speaking to Stuff, Ardern revealed she spent the car journey back to Wellington "feeling gutted".
"I spent that car ride... you know, feeling gutted that we were in this position," she said. "That was the only time that I allowed myself to feel that way.
"I'm not insulated from the same range of emotions other New Zealanders are going through. I know exactly how they feel. This is a hard, hard year for the world and New Zealand included."
In an impromptu press conference on the evening of Tuesday, August 11, it was revealed the four Auckland relatives had tested positive. New Zealand had just passed a significant milestone in its battle against COVID-19, going more than 100 days without evidence of the coronavirus in the community.
Ardern told Stuff that New Zealanders should "feel gratitude" towards those who have been tested, including the family at the centre of Auckland's cluster.
"If they had not gone and got proactively tested in the first place, we would all be in a much worse situation," she told the outlet.
Just one new case of community transmission was confirmed on Sunday, along with two imported cases detected in managed isolation and quarantine facilities.
The latest case in the community is a household contact of a previously recorded case and is epidemiologically linked to the existing Auckland cluster.
There are currently 114 active cases in the country, 96 of which were detected within the community. The remaining 18 are new arrivals who returned a positive result due to routine testing in managed isolation and quarantine facilities.
On Monday, the Prime Minister will reveal whether or not alert level 3 restrictions in Auckland will be extended. The country entered level 3 lockdown at midday on Wednesday, August 12. Level 3 protocol is tentatively due to be lifted at 11:59pm on Wednesday, August 26. The rest of New Zealand is currently under alert level 2.
