The Long Road to Level 2

December 2019

13th Chinese health officials inform the World Health Organisation (WHO) about a cluster of 41 patients with a mysterious pneumonia.

Most are connected to Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, in Wuhan City, in the central Chinese province of Hubei.

January 2020

1st Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market closes, WHO puts emergency protocols in place for dealing with the outbreak.

7th Chinese authorities identify a new type of coronavirus (called novel coronavirus or nCoV). Five days later, China shares the genetic sequence of the virus for countries to use in developing diagnostic kits. 11th China records its first death. 13th First coronavirus case outside of China reported in Thailand.

15th NZ’s Ministry of Health warns officials to prepare.

20th First US case is reported. 22nd NZ starts testing at a low scale. 24th MoH sets up a team to monitor the situation, but says risk is low.

25th Three cases of the virus confirmed in Australia. 27th Public health staff begin meeting flights from China to NZ to look for signs of the virus.

30th The Government charters Air NZ flight to evacuate NZers from Wuhan. WHO declares the outbreak a ‘public health emergency of international concern’.

31st First cases are reported in Italy.

February

2nd First death outside China is recorded in the Philippines.

3rd NZ Government places entry restrictions on foreign nationals travelling here from, or transiting through, mainland China. Those who can enter the country must self-isolate for 14 days.

6th The chartered flight carrying 193 evacuees from Wuhan touches down in Auckland. Passengers are quarantined for 14 days at a naval base in Whangaparaoa. gp

9th China’s death toll surpasses that of the 2002-03 SARS epidemic, with 811 deaths recorded. 11th WHO announces a name for the new coronavirus disease: Covid-19, short for ‘coronavirus disease 2019’.

19th First case is reported in Iran, as the quarantine of people evacuated from Wuhan to Whangaparāoa ends.

22nd Italy outbreak escalates with more than 50,000 people from 11 different municipalities quarantined in the north of the country.

28th NZ’s first domestic case, a woman in her 60s who travelled to Auckland from Iran. The Government places restrictions on people travelling to NZ from Iran.

March

1st Australia and US report first Covid-19-related deaths.

4th Auckland woman in her 30s who had visited northern Italy is confirmed as the second case. The next day, a man in his 40s, whose family recently travelled from Iran, becomes the third case, and first known person-to-person transmission in NZ. World Hereford conference takes place in Queenstown. 120 people from 18 countries attend. This will become the country’s first ‘cluster’ ( groups of 10 or more cases linked together).

8th 300 tests completed in NZ. 10th Italy goes into lockdown with over 6000 cases and 200 dead.

11th Worldwide cases: 118,000. 4000 deaths across 114 countries. WHO declares Covid-19 a ‘pandemic’.

13th Auckland’s Pasifika Festival cancelled and the Black Caps play Australia in an empty stadium in Sydney (above). Europe becomes the epicentre of the pandemic, with more reported cases and deaths there than in the rest of the world combined, apart from China. More cases are now being reported every day than were reported in China at the height of its epidemic.

14th Government announces anyone entering the country must self-isolate for 14 days, except from the Pacific. Cruise ships are banned and strict border measures for people travelling from NZ to the Pacific are put in place, including health assessment requirements. Memorial services for the Christchurch terror attacks of March 15, 2019, are cancelled.

16th PM Jacinda Ardern says any tourists who enter NZ and don’t self-quarantine will be deported.

17th Government announces a $12.1b package to minimise impacts on the economy. Matamata’s Redoubt Bar hosts a St Patrick’s Day event. A cluster develops. 77 people have been infected, with one death (May 9).

19th All indoor gatherings of more than 100 people banned. The Government closes the country’s borders to all but NZ citizens and permanent residents for the first time in history. Finance Minister Grant Robertson announces a $900m to keep Air NZ afloat. 20th Worldwide cases exceed 200,000.

It took more than three months to reach the first 100,000 cases, and only 12 days to reach the next 100,000.

ALERT LEVEL 2

21st NZ cases: 51. Not being able to rule out community transmission the Government introduces a four-level alert system to help combat covid-19, starting at level 2. A wedding is held in Bluff, creating NZ’s largest cluster. 98 cases and two deaths (May 9). 22nd First case confirmed in Marist College in Auckland, creating a cluster of 95 cases (May 9).

ALERT LEVEL 3

23rd Cases nationally double in two days to 102 as Ardern announces the country has moved to alert level 3. People are instructed to stay at home. Schools and other educational facilities and all non-essential businesses to close.

25th A state of emergency is declared, as the country prepares to go into lockdown at midnight, for a minimum of four weeks. The Olympic Games are postponed to 2021. 11.59pm: NZ moves to alert level 4, and the entire nation goes into self-isolation. Worldwide cases: 372,757. 16,231 dead.

ALERT LEVEL 4

26th NZ’s streets are empty as the country enters day one of lockdown. Director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield warns NZ may see thousands of cases before the turnaround point.

29th First Covid-19-related death in NZ. Anne Guenole, 73, of Greymouth.

April

3rd First case in the Rosewood Rest Home cluster confirmed. 55 cases and 12 deaths (May 9). Early April also sees the beginning of the St Margaret’s Hospital and Rest Home cluster in Auckland. 35 cases and 3 deaths.

5th NZ passes 1000 cases, with 12 clusters.

6th UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson (above) is hospitalised, 10 days after testing positive for the virus.

Worldwide cases: Over one million. More than 50,000 deaths.

7th 54 new cases are announced, bringing the NZ total to 1160, meanwhile 65 have recovered — the first time recoveries have exceeded new cases. Health Minister David Clark is demoted after admitting to breaching lockdown rules by taking his family to the beach and driving to a mountain track to go for a ride.

9th 29 new cases, the lowest number of new cases since before lockdown began. A woman in her 90s dies in Christchurch, one of 20 Rosewood Rest Home residents moved to Burwood Hospital in an effort to halt the spread of the virus. The first death linked to the cluster.

10th Two people die from Covid-19. Bernard Pope, 78, a former top boxing trainer and a resident at Rosewood Rest Home, dies at Burwood Hospital. Chrisanthos (Christo) Tzanoudakis, 87, originally from Crete, dies at Wellington Public Hospital. His son was the groom at the Bluff wedding.

13th Three deaths linked to the Rosewood Rest Home cluster – two men in their 80s and another in his 90s. Bob James, 79, of Wellington dies.

14th Alister Peter Brookland, in his 70s, of Invercargill dies in his home, the first community death from the disease, but with ‘indirect’ links to the Bluff wedding cluster.

16th Denis Albert Moore, 94, of Matamata dies. Linked to the Redoubt Bar cluster in Matamata. A woman in her 80s from Rosewood Rest Home dies at Burwood Hospital.

20th Auckland’s first death from the disease: A woman in her 70s from the St Margaret’s Rest Home in Te Atatu. Another woman in her 80s from the Rosewood Rest Home cluster dies. Ardern announces the country will remain in level 4 lockdown for an additional five days, to 11.59pm on April 27. NZ would then remain at level 3 for two weeks, before the alert status was reviewed.

22nd Three deaths. Invercargill woman Jocelyn Finlayson, 62, dies overnight in Dunedin Hospital ICU and two from Rosewood Rest Home, a man in his 70s and a man in his 60s. 24th Woman in her 70s dies in Waitākere Hospital — the second death linked to St Margaret’s Rest Home.

25th Anzac Day, thousands ‘Stand at Dawn’ and watch virtual commemorations. 27th Preparations to move to level 3 at 11.59pm. Another resident of St Margaret’s Rest Home dies, a woman in her 90s.

ALERT LEVEL 3

28th Restored liberties welcomed at level 3. Lines outside takeaway joints are so long in places police and traffic controls are called in.

May

2nd George Hollings, a Rosewood Rest Home resident in his 80s, dies from Covid-19.

4th No new cases of Covid-19 reported in NZ, the first time since March 16.

5th No new cases. 6th A woman in her 60s from the Rosewood Rest Home dies.

11th Government announces that NZ will move to level 2 at midnight on May 13. Over 180,000 people have been tested in NZ since January. Worldwide cases: 4,098,981. 282,553 deaths (midday).

ALERT LEVEL 2

14th New Zealand moves to level 2. Cafes, restaurants, tourism operators, sports clubs, libraries, cinemas and gyms can open again. But bars which don’t serve food will have to stay shut until next Thursday, May 21, and all social gatherings are limited to a maximum of 10 people.

8th Two NZers aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess (right), harboured in Yokohama, Japan, are confirmed as NZ’s first cases.