Three new coronavirus cases reported in New Zealand, first since January

After almost a month, New Zealand has reported three new local coronavirus cases, making them the first since January.

New Zealand has been subjecting all incoming travellers to hotel quarantine, which has helped the government decrease the cases. However, a traveller tested positive for the deadly coronavirus after leaving the quarantine.

The three new cases are a couple and their daughter from Auckland. This has made the New Zealand government sound alarm bells. As of now, the government has started genomic testing to make sure the new-found cases are not linked to any of the highly infectious variants found around the globe.

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New Zealand had a handful of cases before this on January 24, which were first after almost two months of zero coronavirus cases.

The new cases also led to the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern cancelling her appearance at a gay pride event, scheduled to happen in Auckland on Sunday afternoon.

"Our system has swung into action," said New Zealand's minister for COVID-19 response, Chris Hipkins. "We are gathering all of the facts as quickly as we can. And the system that`s served us so well in the past is really gearing up to do so again."

As of now, the government has not implemented any restrictions. "No further consideration of change to alert levels has been taken at this point. We will collect more information before we would make any such decision," Hipkins said. "whether COVID-19 could be out there in the community ... or whether this is the start of what could be a chain of transmission."

These three new cases have come a few days before the country is set to vaccinate people with coronavirus vaccine to masses with the Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine against COVID-19.