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WELLINGTON — New Zealand said on Tuesday that 13 more crew members of a fishing boat quarantined in the capital city of Wellington have tested positive for COVID-19.
Two crew members of the Viking Bay, a Spanish-flagged deep sea fishing vessel that arrived in New Zealand last week, had previously been reported as confirmed with the virus.
All 15 affected crew have now been transferred to an onshore quarantine facility in Wellington, New Zealand’s health ministry said in a statement.
One of the crew was confirmed last week to have the Delta variant. No link has been shown between this case and any other cases previously identified in New Zealand. Genome sequencing of the 13 positive test results will begin on Tuesday.
New Zealand has largely eliminated coronavirus from the community with the last recorded positive COVID-19 case reported in February. It has so far recorded about 2,500 cases and 26 deaths from the virus. (Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)