New Zealand lockdown extended by 12 days as cluster grows

NEW ZEALAND’S renewed coronavirus outbreak has spread beyond Auckland, the government revealed yesterday as lockdown measures were extended for another 12 days.

Despite a strict quarantine imposed in an effort to contain the virus in the city, two cases have been detected in the North Island town of Tokoroa, 130 miles to the south, Chris Hipkins, the health minister, said.

Overall, 12 more cases of community transmission have been confirmed while a 13th is suspected, Mr Hipkins said – bringing the total number to 30.

Masked police have sealed off roads out of Auckland in an attempt to ringfence the outbreak, three months after New Zealand declared itself virus-free. The discovery that it has leaked out of the city is therefore a particular blow to the official strategy.

But Mr Hipkins sought to dismiss fears that Covid-19 could now be rampant elsewere, insisting that despite the distance, the cases were all part of the same Auckland cluster.

“We’ve seen no evidence of a Covid-19 case outside of Auckland that is unrelated to the cluster we are dealing with,” he said.

Earlier, Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, praised Auckland residents for the “incredible job” they have done observing the Level 3 alert in the city. Ms Ardern said the additional 12 days would take the Level 3 lockdown in Auckland and the Level 2 measures in the rest of the country to 14 days in total, allowing for the incubation period of the virus.

“Our expectation is that by then the perimeters of the outbreak will be identified, the outbreak isolated, and Auckland can return to Level 2.”

She said signs indicated that outbreak was identified relatively early, and that while the origin of the outbreak was still unknown, contact tracing and genomic testing had found no link to the country’s borders or to the managed quarantine system.