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New Zealand's coronavirus minister Chris Hipkins has revealed that three members of the same family in South Auckland have tested positive for coronavirus.
The mum, son and daughter all tested positive for the virus today, however the source of the infection is yet to be discovered.
This is the first outbreak the country has seen after being Covid-19 free for over 20 days.
Health officials in South Auckland are now working to rapidly test everybody the family have come into contact with, in a bid to contain the new outbreak.
The mum who tested positive works for one of the biggest airline catering providers in the world, LSG Sky Chefs in Mangere, while the daughter attends Papatoetoe High School which will now be closed for 48 hours.
Officials are now carrying out tests at the mum's workplace in order to stop the spread.
Chris Hipkins said: "There is a number of gaps in our knowledge around these cases".
"There are still a lot of questions here, this is a precautionary measure. Having the Prime Minister in Wellington means we can make decisions quickly. At this stage, we don't know whether we need to [lockdown]."
Jacinda Ardern swiftly returned to Wellington rather than attending a gay pride event in Auckland today and following a meeting with top government officials, announced that the largest city in New Zealand, Auckland, was to enter a three day lockdown period.
The Prime Minister said that the decision was made and will remain in place until the government learn more about the outbreak and if any further variants were about.
The rest of New Zealand also faces tougher lockdown measures.
Alf Filipaina, ward councillor for Manukau has urged locals to get tested for the virus, saying: "In south Auckland, our community are just more vulnerable than any other.
"I'm saying to people, get tested, it has to be. We don't want to end up to where we were."
Before the outbreak, New Zealand had spent two months infection-free before an outbreak across the country last month.
Medical officials are set to start administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to the country's population of five million from February 20.
- Coronavirus
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