The Cook Islands have confirmed two more positive COVID-19 cases, taking the total in the country to six.
Prime Minister Mark Brown said the two new cases arrived in Rarotonga from New Zealand together onboard Air NZ flight NZ946 on Saturday (local time), where they were also travelling with a third travel companion.
"All three visitors, two of whom were symptomatic with runny noses and mild fever, went to the airport testing station yesterday afternoon on February 21 [Monday] after one of them was informed that a friend they had had contact with three days earlier had just tested positive for COVID-19 in New Zealand," Brown said.
"Results from their RAT tests came back with two positive and one negative for the asymptomatic travelling companion.
"All three were advised to return to their hotel and were later swabbed for PCR testing. Their PCR results came back yesterday evening [Tuesday NZ Time], again with two positive results and one remaining negative."
The news comes just a week after the island nation confirmed their first community case of the virus.
The two new cases are under 10-day Isolation Orders, while their travelling companion who tested negative has been placed under a 10-day quarantine and will be tested again on days five and nine of their quarantine period.
Brown said that contact tracing investigations had so far identified 13 close contacts of these two new positive cases.
The contacts are mainly from the visitors' inbound flight and those who had contact with them upon their arrival on Saturday.
"All close contacts have been contacted and formally placed under quarantine orders and will be PCR tested today, as well as on days five and nine of their quarantine periods. They are all currently asymptomatic," Brown said.
"I would like to commend the diligence of these three visitors in getting themselves tested when they knew they were at risk and thank them for playing their part in protecting the nation from COVID-19."
Brown said that all six positive cases are fully vaccinated, and none have required hospital treatment. All six currently remain in isolation and we also have a total of 73 close contacts currently under quarantine.
