Single case sends N.Z. into lockdown

SYDNEY • One coronavirus case. That’s all it took to send New Zealand into a three-day, nationwide lockdown late Tuesday as the country’s six-month streak without local transmission came to an end. Auckland, the largest city, where the new case was detected, is likely to be shut down for seven days.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was ordering the country’s harshest shutdown in more than a year given the strong likelihood that the case was the more infectious Delta variant, with genomic test results expected overnight. She appealed to New Zealanders not to go out unnecessarily.

“Just as we successfully stayed home and saved lives last year, I’m asking the team of five million to unite once more to defeat what is likely to be this more dangerous and transmissible variant of the virus,” she told reporters.

The snap lockdown is a setback for a country whose success in suppressing the virus has made it something of a pandemic star. Only 26 people have died from COVID-19 in New Zealand. A recent study named it the best place to ride out societal collapse.

But officials said they were alarmed not to be able to connect the new case to the island nation’s tightly sealed border or strict isolation facilities for returning residents and citizens.

“Because we cannot link the case to the border at this point, it is possible there are other cases around Auckland and other possible chains of transmission,” said director general of health Ashley Bloomfield.

The single case has also raised alarms because of the country’s sluggish vaccination campaign. Less than 20 per cent of New Zealanders are fully vaccinated — one of the lowest rates among developed countries.

Bloomfield said the case was a 58-year-old Auckland man who had recently tried to register for his first dose but had encountered problems with the website. Most people between the ages of 55 and 60 only became eligible for vaccinations on Aug. 6.

The man had been infectious this weekend when he and his wife went on a trip to the nearby Coromandel Peninsula, which will also lock down for seven days, Bloomfield said. The man began to feel sick on Saturday and saw his doctor on Monday, when he was tested. His wife, who is fully vaccinated, has tested negative.

Sewage tests last week in Auckland showed the virus had not spread in the city of 1.5 million, Bloomfield said. But a list of 23 potential exposure sites included a pub crowded with rugby fans.

“People from around the country will have travelled to Auckland and back to other parts of New Zealand,” he said.

“Therefore, a case identified in Auckland requires us all to be part of the response.”