New Zealand placed the largest city closed on Sunday – after a single family tested positive for COVID-19.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered the three-day closure of Auckland after a couple and their daughter gave positive results in the country, known for virtually eliminating the spread of the contagion.
The new community cases are only four in the last three months – the blockade being the first in New Zealand in six months.
“We have eliminated the virus before and we will do it again,” Ardern told a news conference in the capital Wellington.
Level 3 restrictions require everyone to stay at home, except for shopping and essential work. It will also force a delay in the sailing regatta of the America’s Cup.
“Three days should give us enough time to gather additional information, carry out large-scale tests and determine whether there has been a wider community transmission,” Ardern said. “This is what we believe requires a prudent approach and is what needs to be done.”
Airlines have been alerted because the woman in the infected family works for an air catering company, LSG Sky Chefs, where she works mostly in laundries, officials said. He had not boarded the planes.
Her unidentified family was the first confirmed infection since a traveler returning from Europe tested positive on January 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 pandemic began.
Scientists are sequencing the genome to see if these are variants and also to see if they match infected passengers, said COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins.
“New Zealand has kept COVID-19 better than almost any other country,” Hipkins said of the nation, which closed its international borders and introduced strict social distance at the start of the pandemic.
“But as I’ve said, there’s no risk.”
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