New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke Wednesday about two new COVID-19 cases reported earlier that week, the first in more than three weeks, calling it an "unacceptable" failure of the system.

Two sisters, New Zealand citizens who had returned from the U.K. to visit a dying parent, were allowed to leave quarantine early without being tested for COVID-19 and were later found to be infected with the coronavirus.

The cases brought an end to the country's brief period of being virus-free. It also prompted the country to suspend the use of compassionate leave from quarantine, which is what allowed the sisters to exit their isolation in Auckland and travel by road to Wellington.

The Ministry of Health has so far identified 320 close contacts of the women who it's now in the process of contacting, isolating and testing.

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