Coronavirus latest: Singapore reports lowest daily rise in 4 months; New Zealand’s largest city in lockdown

Name: New Zealand orders Auckland back in lockdown after first local Covid-19 cases in 102 days
Uploaded: 2020-08-12T01:54:34.000Z
Duration: 1 min 53 s
Description: New Zealand orders Auckland back in lockdown after first local Covid-19 cases in 102 days

Singapore has reported 42 new Covid-19 cases, with the majority being migrant workers serving quarantine

Meanwhile, New Zealand is investigating the possibility the virus was imported by freight after a man who worked at a cool store tested positive

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People seen in face masks at Orchard Road in Singapore. File photo: AFP

Agencies

Published: 9:54am, 12 Aug 2020Updated: 8:33pm, 12 Aug 2020

Singapore on Wednesday reported its lowest daily coronavirus caseload in over four months, as countries in the Asia-Pacific grappled with new outbreaks, with New Zealand’s largest city back in lockdown, church-linked infections re-emerging in South Korea, and Australia seeing its deadliest day of the pandemic so far.

Of Wednesday’s 42 cases – Singapore’s lowest tally since March 29 – the majority were dorm-dwelling migrant workers serving quarantine.

The Ministry of Manpower said in a statement late on Tuesday that all the foreign worker dormitories had been cleared, except for 17 standalone blocks, which serve as quarantine facilities.

01:53

New Zealand orders Auckland back in lockdown after first local Covid-19 cases in 102 days

Meanwhile, health authorities in New Zealand were on Wednesday scrambling to trace the source of a new outbreak as the nation’s largest city began a three-day stay-at-home order.

Authorities on Tuesday confirmed four cases of the virus in one Auckland household from an unknown source, the first reported cases of local transmission in the country in 102 days.

Authorities said two of the people who had tested positive had travelled to the tourist city of Rotorua last weekend while suffering symptoms, and they were now trying to track their movements.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said health officials were also locking down aged care homes across the country because they could act as transmission hotspots.

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