New Zealand shut down its largest city on Sunday – after only one family tested positive for COVID-19.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered the three-day lockdown for Auckland after a couple and their daughter tested positive in the country that has been widely acclaimed for virtually eliminating the spread of the contamination.
Of the new community cases, only four have been in the past three months – with the lockdown the first in New Zealand in six months.
“We have eradicated the virus before and we will do it again,” Ardern told a press conference in the capital, Wellington.
The Level 3 restrictions require everyone to stay at home except for essential groceries and work. It will also force a delay in the America’s Cup sailing regatta.
“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,” Ardern said. “That’s what we think the prudent approach requires and is the right choice.”
Airlines have been warned that the woman in the infected family works for an airline catering company, LSG Sky Chefs, where she mainly works in laundry facilities, officials said. She had not boarded any planes.
Her unidentified family was the first confirmed infection since a traveler returning from Europe tested positive on Jan. 24, which was the first case in two months.
New Zealand, with a population of 5 million, has reported a total of just over 2,330 cases and 25 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Scientists perform genome sequencing to see if they are variants, as well as to see if they match infected passengers, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said.
“New Zealand has kept COVID-19 in check better than almost any other country,” Hipkins said of the country closing its international borders and introducing strict social distance early in the pandemic.
“But as we’ve been saying, there is no such thing as no risk.”
With pole wires