Just days after New Zealand declared yet again it was victorious in quashing the coronavirus pandemic, two new positive cases of the virus have emerged. 

On Wednesday, New Zealand's Prime Minister announced it would be lifting coronavirus restrictions in cities, proclaiming it had eradicated the spread of the disease for a second time.

On Thursday, two new cases were reported after travelers tested positive for the virus. The two individuals had reportedly traveled from India and arrived in the country Sept. 26. The travelers were then tested for the virus, with the results returning positive 12 days into their quarantine.

As of this week, New Zealand had about 41 active cases. All of the cases are travelers arriving from other countries. The country currently does not have any active community cases. Since the start of the pandemic, the country has reported about 1,866 positive cases with around 25 deaths.

On Wednesday, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that citizens should feel proud of how they had all managed to defeat the disease. She explained that there was a 95% probability that the clustering of the disease had been eliminated.

Ardern had warned citizens that the victory doesn't necessarily mean that the virus is now absent from the country. It only means that there is currently no sign of it but it is still there. The country is still in Alert Level 1, which means that people are still encouraged to wear face masks and to maintain social distancing in public places and around people they don't know.

New Zealand has managed to fare well compared to other countries, partly thanks to its aggressive contact tracing program. Before August, the country had not reported any new community cases for over three months.

After the pandemic hit earlier in the year, New Zealand immediately launched an aggressive system of managed isolations, contact tracing, and quarantine rules to prevent the disease from spreading. This also included the launch of a COVID Tracer contact tracing app that quickly tracked down infected individuals and people they had come into contact with.

In April, Ardern announced that their efforts had paid off. She proclaimed during that time that through the government's actions and the cooperation of its citizens, New Zealand had finally been able to "defeat" the virus.