Coronavirus NZ: Auckland cold storage cluster grows by 13

Jacinda Ardern warns the cluster linked to a cold storage company will ‘grow before it slows,’ with four children among the infected.

New Zealand has recorded another 13 cases of coronavirus, with the majority linked to a cold storage company in south Auckland.

The cluster that sent Auckland into lockdown and the rest of the country into Stage 2 restrictions has now grown to 17, including four children aged between one and 19. It brings the total number of active cases in New Zealand to 36.

All the new cases are linked to the original four COVID-19 cases announced on Tuesday and the majority are linked to Americold, the cold storage company where two of the original cases worked and which believed to be the source of the new cluster. Three of the new cases are employees at Americold, while another seven are family members of those employees.

Two Americold sites in Mt Wellington and at Auckland Airport have been closed, with all employees tested. The company is a frozen food storage facility with branches in Australia, NZ and the US.

Americold is a frozen food storage facility. Picture: Supplied.

The confirmed cases have been placed in managed quarantine but NZ Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said he “fully expected” more cases in coming days.

One of the cases was a pupil at Mt Albert Grammar school, while another visited an aged care centre in the Waikato, south of Auckland. All aged care residences in the country have been placed into lockdown, with visitors banned from entering.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the latest numbers showed the “seriousness of the situation” and warned that any cluster “grows before it slows.”

The growing clusters throws into doubt the lifting of Auckland’s lockdown, which had been planned for Friday. Hundreds have attempted to flee the city, with a roadblock set up at the Bombay Hills, south of Auckland turning back city residents trying to spend lockdown in the holiday homes.

Panic buying has also seen a return, while testing stations have been deluged with worried residents.

As the major parties suspended their campaigns for the September 19 general election, Ms Ardern fended off opposition accusations of a lack of transparency.

National Party leader Judith Collins urged Ms Ardern to postpone the election, accusing her of a lack of transparency because there had been no cross party consultation on lockdown decisions.

Deputy National leader Gerry Brownlee went a step further, suggesting the government knew about the cluster before it was announced.

“You had the Prime Minister’s visit to the mask factory … a matter of hours before a large residential area of New Zealand went into level 3 lockdown,” he said.

Ms Ardern dismissed the claims as “nonsense,” asking for unity in the fight against the virus. She said the dissolution of parliament had been deferred until Monday to focus on the response to the new cluster.