New Zealand city enters 3-day virus lockdown
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – New Zealand’s largest city of Auckland began a three-day lockdown after the discovery of three unexplained coronavirus cases in the community.
Health officials said Monday the cases were of the more contagious variant first found in Britain and that genome testing hadn’t linked them to any previous known cases.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the lockdown after an urgent meeting with other top lawmakers in the Cabinet. She said they decided to take a cautious approach until they find out more about the outbreak.
The lockdown, which extends through Wednesday, is the first in New Zealand in six months and represents a significant setback in the nation’s largely successful efforts to control the virus. It has also forced a delay in the America’s Cup sailing regatta.
New Zealand had successfully stamped out community spread, and many people elsewhere in the world looked on in envy as New Zealanders went back to work and began attending concerts and sporting events without the need to wear masks or take other precautions.
Ardern on Sunday had planned to attend the Big Gay Out, an Auckland festival that celebrates the rainbow community and attracts tens of thousands of people.
She ended up canceling those plans and returning to Wellington to manage the outbreak.
“I’m asking New Zealanders to continue to be strong and to be kind,” Ardern said. “I know we all feel the same way when this happens. We all get that sense of ‘Not again.’ But remember, we have been here before and that means we know how to get out of this again, and that is together.”
New Zealand’s greatest vulnerability has been at the border.
New cases are regularly caught among returning travelers, all of whom are required to spend two weeks in quarantine. Despite precautions, there have been several times when the virus has leaked out from the border before being controlled again, and officials are trying to determine if that’s happened again.
In the latest case, an Auckland mother, father and daughter caught the disease.