Auckland shut down after outbreak traced to single household

One-and-a-half million workers in Auckland must stay home and schools and pubs have been shut after four cases of Covid-19 were identified in New Zealand’s commercial capital.

The new cases end a remarkable run of 102 days with no community transmission in the country.

Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, and Ashley Bloomfield, director general of health, announced late last night that the city would be going back into a rigid lockdown and restrictions will be imposed on the rest of the country.

It followed the news that an Auckland resident in their 50s tested positive, with three more cases found in their household.

Officials are scrambling to identify the source, as the initial case had not travelled recently and does not work in quarantine centres or on the border.

All close contacts of the four cases have been placed in isolation, regardless of symptoms.

Workplace and other contacts are being traced and will be tested. Dr Bloomfield said that people outside of Auckland must also be cautious, practise social distancing and wear masks.

The measures sparked some criticism. Todd Muller, the former opposition leader, said: “The New Zealand strategy cannot be that we stay locked up until everybody else gets to zero or we have a vaccine.

“This country would be on its knees if that was the case.”

Ms Ardern said Auckland will return to Level 3 restrictions today.

As of this morning, all schools, child care centres, restaurants and bars will be closed, and people must work from home unless they are essential service workers, meaning 1.6million will stay home. Supermarkets and pharmacies will remain open.

New Zealand beyond Auckland will return to Level 2 restrictions.

Ms Ardern said: “These three days will give us the time to assess, to gather information, to carry out widespread contact tracing so we can identify how this case arose. We had all hoped not to find ourselves in this position again, but we had also prepared for it.”