WELLINGTON – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Saturday that the country’s largest city, Auckland, would go into a seven-day blockade since Sunday morning, after the emergence of a new local case of the source coronavirus unknown.
This happened two weeks after almost 2 million Auckland residents were placed in a sudden three-day confinement, when a family of three was diagnosed with the most transmissible British variant of the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Health officials, who could not immediately confirm how the person was infected, said that the genome sequencing of the new infection was underway.
The patient developed symptoms on Tuesday and has been considered potentially infectious since Sunday, officials said. The person visited several public places during this period.
“Based on that, we are in the unfortunate but necessary position to protect Aucklanders again,” said Ardern, announcing the blockade.
Health officials were trying to find out if the new case was related to the group in early February, now with 12 infections.
The blockade, with Level 3 restrictions, will allow people to leave the house only for essential purchases and jobs, Ardern said. Public places will remain closed. Restrictions in the rest of the country will be enforced for Level 2 restrictions, including limits for public meetings.
New Zealand, one of the most successful developed nations in controlling the spread of the pandemic, has seen just over 2,000 cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
A striking Twenty20 cricket match in Auckland between New Zealand and Australia, scheduled for Friday, will be played in Wellington without crowds, said the New Zealand Cricket.
The new restrictions also complicated the America’s Cup Event yacht race scheduled to start on March 6 at Auckland harbor. The America’s Cup event said on Twitter that it was working “on the implications”.