Employees and shoppers eat on the steps of Freyberg Place in central Auckland, New Zealand on October 29, 2020, enjoying the freedom of Covid-19 Alert Level 1.
Lynn Grieveson | Newsroom | Getty Images
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a three-day lockdown in the country’s largest city, Auckland, on Sunday after three COVID-19 cases came to light, the first local infections since late January.
Level 3 restrictions require everyone to stay at home, except for essential groceries and work, Ardern said, reiterating the country’s strict approach over the past year to virtually eradicate the pandemic.
“We have eradicated the virus before and we will do it again,” Ardern told a press conference in the capital, Wellington.
New Zealand, which had not had local infections for more than two months prior to the case in January, will begin immunizing its 5 million people against the new coronavirus on February 20 and receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine earlier than expected.
The restrictions were raised to level 3 through Wednesday, closing public places and banning gatherings outside the home, except for weddings and funerals of up to 10 people. Schools remain open to children of essential workers, but others have been asked to stay at home.
A couple and their daughter in Auckland fell on Sunday, the first local infections since January 24.
Health authorities are trying to find out if these cases are related to one of the new, highly contagious variants and how the family contracted the virus, Ardern said.
“Three days should give us enough time to gather more information, conduct large-scale testing and determine if there has been a wider community transfer,” she said. “That’s what we think the prudent approach requires and is the right choice.”
The prime minister said there was no need to stock up on goods as essential services – including supermarkets, pharmacies and gas stations – would remain open. Still, long lines formed outside the Auckland supermarkets, and photos on social media showed empty shelves for groceries.
Airlines have been contacted because the woman in the infected family works for a catering company, LSG Sky Chefs, where she mainly works in laundry facilities, officials said.
The COVID-19 alert for the rest of the country was raised to level 2, with all meetings limited to 100 people, including in restaurants and cafes.
Australia reported two new local COVID-19 cases in Victoria, the country’s second most populous state, on Sunday on the second day of a rapid lockdown to stem the spread of the highly contagious British variant.
The two cases, including a 3-year-old child, were the first not to be household contacts from a cluster of infected workers at a Melbourne airport quarantine hotel, leading to the five-day lockdown, health authorities said.
The hotel cluster has now affected 16 people.
New Zealand and Australia closed their international borders and introduced strict social distance rules early in the pandemic, drastically reducing the spread of the virus. New Zealand was ranked as the best performing country in an index of nearly 100 countries based on the control of the coronavirus.