New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern announces week-long COVID-19 lockdown after new case detected
New Zealanders would rightly be “disappointed” they are facing yet another lockdown following one case of COVID-19.
New Zealanders will be feeling “disappointed” today as a seven day lockdown begins in Auckland following just a single case of COVID-19 was identified in the community in the last 24 hours.
Professor of Public Health at New Zealand’s University of Otago, Michael Baker, nonetheless said the seven day ramping up of restrictions to alert level three from 6am was warranted and was part of the country’s “very successful response” to the pandemic.
The appearance of the more contagious UK strain of COVID-19 in the community is behind the Auckland lockdown.
For seven days, starting this morning, the two million residents of Greater Auckland will only be allowed to out of their homes for a limited number of reasons. The rest of the country will go into level two for a week.
Public venues will be closed for seven days; gatherings outside of bubbles are prohibited. Aucklanders are being asked to work from home and for children to stay home from school.
Supermarkets will remain open. The border around Auckland will be re-established.
On Sunday morning, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed that genomic sequencing had confirmed the new community case as the B117, or UK strain.
New Zealand has seen the UK strain before, earlier this month in hotel quarantine, but there are now fears it may have been spread around the Auckland community.
DISAPPOINTING
Speaking to the ABC this morning, Professor Baker welcomed the quick decision made by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
“This typifies the very successful response that New Zealand has taken. You need to act very quickly to dampen down transmission.”
However, he said he understood the frustration that Kiwis would be feeling today.
”We were hoping not to go back there (to lockdowns) again because contact-tracing was working so well. So I think that is disappointing.”
Boos greeted the alert level announcement at the Joseph Parker v Junior Fa fight at Spark Arena in Auckland on Saturday – but cheers erupted when the crowd was told the boxing was allowed to continue.
The new COVID-19 case was detected in the community on Saturday afternoon, according to the New Zealand Herald. The new case went to the GP for a COVID test – then went to the gym after that. Ms Ardern said that was “frustrating”.
Auckland went into a snap three-day lockdown just over two weeks ago after three new cases were detected.
THE NEW CASE
The new case was a family member of a student from Papatoetoe High School. That student had tested negative three times before and had no known symptoms – that means there is no current link to the cluster.
The latest case, 21, developed symptoms on Tuesday.
They were tested on Friday and the positive result was received today.
Genome testing is underway – and there is a strong assumption that it’s from the current cluster.
But that cannot be confirmed yet.
Ms Ardern said there was a “cause for concern” as this person has been infectious for a week and not been in isolation.
Cabinet met this afternoon after the new case was detected.
That person had been to a number of “well populated sites”.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said testing of other household members has been completed.
The mother has also tested positive for COVID-19.
This person was tested by their GP yesterday but has been infectious since last weekend.
He works part-time at the airport.
More sequencing is underway and will be back later tonight – he said that would likely show a link to the current cluster.
Mr Bloomfield said it was “very unlikely” that any of the tests from recent outbreak are false negatives.
RULES NOT FOLLOWED
The new case went to the GP in the afternoon yesterday for a COVID test – they went to the gym after that.
Ms Ardern said the rules have not always been followed in the latest outbreak.
“People who should have been in isolation, weren’t,” she said.
She said humans make mistakes and NZ won’t succeed if “we turn on one another”.
Ms Ardern said she was “confident” that the message to isolate was passed on.
But despite that communication, that advice was not followed.
“Unfortunately, we have still had breaches of requirements in this case,” she said.
She said it needs to be kept in mind that “we are dealing with young people”.
She reminded New Zealand that she was not asking any more than was necessary to keep others safe.
“Please follow the rules, on behalf of everyone,” she said, adding “we do have the ability to take enforcement action if we need to” for people who break the rules.
But she said she needs people to still get tested and they can’t be afraid to do that.
Mr Bloomfield said the situation was “challenging”.
He said the contact tracing system has come “under pressure” this week.
Ms Ardern said New Zealand was “very close to being in a more certain future” as the country waits for vaccines.
She called on New Zealanders to just hang in for a little longer.
During the last week, there has been “significant” testing in south Auckland, Mr Bloomfield said.
He said the Ministry of Health is seeing people with muscle aches and general weakness and fatigue, as COVID-19 symptoms.
He is calling on anyone who has these symptoms to get tested.
“We are now in a position where we have a number of potential exposure events,” he said.
Those people need to be prevented from going out and infecting others.
Ms Ardern said even if Auckland was still at level three, this might not have been prevented.
“We have every expectation that people would follow the rules,” she said.
NATIONALS ON THE LOCKDOWN
National Party leader Judith Collins said the new lockdown in Auckland and level two for the rest of the country will be disappointing for all.
“No one wants to be yo-young in and out lockdown,” she said.
“National said the decision to go out of level three on February 17 was a bold and ambitious call.
“At the time we still didn’t know the source of the original case, there were two new community cases of the more transmissible strain that day, and not all of the high school students had been tested.
“Now Auckland is back in lockdown with all the consequences that brings.
“We need to consider tougher penalties against those who are not following public health advice around isolation and testing.
“All New Zealanders will be frustrated at the level of noncompliance. Relying on people to do the right thing looks to have reached its limits and we may need tougher penalties to make sure everyone follows the rules.”
AUCKLAND MAYOR’S MESSAGE
“I understand Aucklanders’ frustration at having to return to level three lockdown, with the disruption it causes to everyone’s lives and the impact it has on businesses, many of which are already struggling,” Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said.
“However, the consequences of letting the virus spread would be far more disruptive and would put people’s lives at risk.
“No one wants to be in lockdown, but it is the most effective means by which to stop a potential new outbreak, especially given the increased transmissibility of the new variant of the disease.
“We are in a much better place than almost any other country in the world because of our strong collective response so far, so we need to keep it up. Aucklanders are old hands at this now. We know what to do to beat the virus and we will get on and do it.”
FOUR NEW LOCATIONS OF INTEREST
The Ministry of Health has released four new locations of interest tonight – Hunter Plaza, Burger King Highland Park, Your Health Pharmacy and Pak’nSave Manukau.
More locations of interest will be up on the Ministry of Health’s website soon.
Anyone who visited these locations is to be considered a casual contact of a COVID-19 case “out of an abundance of caution”. No specific times have been mentioned by the Ministry so far.
Meanwhile, a gym in Papatoetoe has been closed today after being told a person who has tested positive had visited twice, including on Friday.
This exact location has not been confirmed by health officials, but it is located in Hunter Plaza.
CityFitness Papatoetoe informed members in an email tonight it had been “notified by Auckland Regional Public Health that a person who tested positive for COVID-19 had visited our Papatoetoe location” on specified times and dates.
“We have been advised the Auckland Regional Health Board will contact directly anyone who was in the gym during that time and designated as a ‘close’ or ‘casual plus’ contact who should follow the steps below,” the email said.
This article contains information from the NZ Herald and was reproduced with permission
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