New Zealand coronavirus: Jacinda Ardern‘s grim warning as cases rise

After New Zealand recorded its first COVID-19 cases in 102 days yesterday, there are fears four more people could have been infected.

New Zealand is facing a potential second wave of coronavirus after a family of four tested positive to the illness yesterday.

Now a returned traveller has tested positive and another four “probable” cases were detected in Auckland.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed today that the returned traveller, who recently returned from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, had tested positive but was in hotel quarantine.

The four new “probable” cases - who are all showing coronavirus symptoms - were two co-workers and two family members of the original case, reported last night.

The four “probable” cases are three adults and one teenager and all are in isolation.

More than 200 close contacts had been phoned by public health authorities and ordered to self-isolate.

All employees of Americold in Mt Wellington, and the Dominion Rd branch of Finance Now in Auckland and any family members of those employees were in isolation.

Ms Ardern said New Zealand’s strategy had always been to “go hard and go early with a lockdown” and health authorities still saw it as “the best strategy for getting businesses open as soon as it is safe”.

“I just want to outline why it’s so important we stick to the plan,” Ms Ardern said.

“Yesterday there were 322 new cases of COVID-19 in Australia...there are 54 in intensive care and 39 on ventilators.

“Our response to the virus so far as worked and it gave New Zealanders the freedom we cherished... we know how to beat this but we also know we don’t have to look far to see what will happen if we don’t get on top of it.”

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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Picture: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

New Zealand’s director general of health Ashley Bloomfield said the original infected family, the four community cases confirmed last night, had visited Rotorua on holiday.

The tourist town, around three hours south of Auckland, is the only location besides Auckland that New Zealand health authorities have said is at risk.

The infected family stayed at the Waiora Hotel from August 8 to August 11 and visited the Skyline Gondola Luge on August 8, Dr Bloomfield said.

A three-day stay-at-home order for Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city with a population of 1.5 million, was announced last night and went into force at lunchtime today.

Ms Ardern said there would be two changes to the return of stage three restrictions in Auckland.

The first change relates to the country’s public health order and makes it mandatory for all businesses and services in Auckland to display the QR code for the government’s coronavirus tracing app at all entry points.

Ms Ardern said businesses would have one week to become compliant.

“It helps our ability to contact trace quickly and it is a key tool to find new cases and get them into isolation to avoid future outbreaks,” Ms Ardern said.

“It will protect you and protect the people around you.”

The New Zealand PM said more than 100,000 people downloaded the app last night and she encouraged all Kiwis to “get into the habit of signing in to places”.

The second new element to the public health order makes it mandatory for all New Zealanders travelling out of Auckland on flights to wear a face mask on the plane.

Ms Ardern said the order was specific to planes “because of the close proximity”.

Despite the mandated mask wearing only applying to planes leaving Auckland, Ms Ardern said the country’s health authorities were “strongly urging” all Auckland residents to wear a face covering when leaving their home.

“Think of it as a duty to one another,” she said.

“It’s also a sign you care about your community.”

The New Zealand government has released five million extra face masks from the national stockpile and is distributing three million of those to social services and charities to give to vulnerable citizens.

Ms Ardern said if Auckland residents were unable to afford buying a mask to “please use what else you may have on hand”.

New Zealand locked down nursing homes nationwide today after a 102-day streak without the coronavirus ended.

Police in facemasks manned roadblocks on major roads in Auckland to enforce the new measures.

Queues stretch for kilometers in and out of Auckland as police stop vehicles at a checkpoint. Picture: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

Ms Ardern said health officials were also locking down aged care homes across the country because they could act as transmission hotspots.

“I realise how incredibly difficult this will be for those who have loved ones in these facilities, but it’s the strongest way we can protect and look after them,” she said.

There was panic buying at supermarkets across New Zealand and huge queues at coronavirus testing stations as Kiwis came to terms with the re-emergence of a virus many thought had been defeated.

New Zealand had been held up by the World Health Organization as an example of how to contain the disease after recording only 22 deaths in a population of five million and preventing community transmission for more than three months.

Ms Ardern said the return of coronavirus was “unsettling” but all efforts were being made to retrace the steps of the Auckland family of four who contracted it from an unknown source.

She said the September 19 election may be impacted if the outbreak could not be contained.

“We’re seeking advice from the Electoral Commission, just so that we make sure have all options open to us,” she said.

“No decisions yet, as you can imagine, have been made.”

Queues in and out of Auckland after a stay-at-home order came into effect. Picture: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

- With AFP