New Zealand has expanded a lockout in its most populated city as the nation is fighting a fresh outbreak of coronavirus in the population that comes after months without any cases being transmitted locally.
New Zealand just five days ago marked an enviable landmark — 100 days without any transmission from the world. But this week has shown how easily things can change, even in a country like New Zealand that has been holding up as a global leader for managing the virus.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed on Friday that Auckland — the town of around 1.5 million residents at the center of the latest outbreak — will remain under a level three lockout for another 12 days, while the majority of the country remains under level two limits, meaning that gatherings are restricted to no more than 100 citizens. The rules expand restrictions which entered into force earlier this week.
In Tokoroa
Under level three limitations, people will be advised to stay away from home for vital personal activity, schools will run at reduced capacity, and public places like museums, playgrounds, and gyms will remain locked.
The fresh outbreak poses a blow to New Zealand.The nation had already spent five weeks under one of the toughest lockdowns in the world, which closed most businesses and colleges, and saw people staying at home.
Ardern has said she expects further incidents to be reported.
"The worst thing we might do for Auckland and the New Zealand economy is to loosen restrictions now, and see an influx in cases," she said. "Before we got rid of Covid ... We can do it all again."
New Zealand 's Health Director-General Dr. Ashley Bloomfield confirmed another 12 cases of coronavirus transmitted locally earlier Friday. There are currently 49 suspected cases in New Zealand, of which 29 are related to the recent outbreak.
The reports are all in Auckland aside from two in Tokoroa, a town about 200 km (124 miles) south of the town of 24,000. According to the Ministry of Health, after a visit from a friend with one of the Auckland cases these two tested positive.
Bloomfield said in a press conference Friday that 771 near contacts of the reported cases had been identified, and on Thursday more than 15,700 tests had been performed — the largest number of tests conducted in a single day in the world.
New Zealand has performed over 500,000 studies since the onset of the outbreak. A total of 1,251 cases of coronavirus have been reported including 22 deaths.
Wellington Mayor's Hear as New Zealand reimposes 03:20 lockout
Who caused the outbreak?
A big, unanswered question still remains: Why did this outbreak happen?
Back in March, the remote island nation introduced stringent border controls, ensuring that only New Zealanders are permitted to enter the country for the most part — and those who come from abroad need to spend 14 days in state quarantine. 68 per cent of New Zealand 's cases are imported or related to imported cases, according to the Ministry of Health.
One potential cause of this latest outbreak is that coronavirus somehow came out of the state quarantine facilities in New Zealand.
That's what Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters told Australian national broadcaster ABC, saying: "I believe our quarantine program has breached."
Until breaches occurred in New Zealand — in July, a man cut through a fence at a controlled isolation facility to visit a liquor store, and another man who later tested positive for coronavirus broke out of a facility and visited a supermarket .. Infringements of the quarantine facility were related to an outbreak in Victoria, an Australian state currently under lockdown.
A pedestrian walks past a sign of social distance in Wellington, New Zealand, August 14, 2020.
A pedestrian walks past a sign of social distance in Wellington, New Zealand, August 14, 2020.
To date, authorities have not found a correlation in controlled isolation facilities between the genome involved in this latest outbreak and any cases there. Bloomfield said the latest cases most closely mimic United Kingdom and Australia genome trends.
Bloomfield suggests that the epidemic may have occurred in New Zealand through the facility of isolation rather than being present for months.
"I think there is very strong evidence to say that in the culture, it wasn't hiding," he said. Ardern said Friday that the strain in the latest outbreak isn't the same as before Was in New Zealand.
Officials are now analyzing surface samples at American temperature-controlled manufacturing firm Americold, where one of the first four to test positive worked. The organization has been related in a variety of cases.
Yet Ardern said officials for now do not know how the outbreak occurred.
"In order to deal efficiently with this cluster we don't really need to address the issue," she said.
Health Director-General Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaks to the media during a parliamentary news conference in Wellington, New Zealand on August 14, 2020.
Health Director-General Dr Ashley Bloomfield talks to the media at a parliamentary press conference on At Auckland, New Zealand, August 14, 2020.
What Compares New Zealand
New Zealand 's fresh epidemic has drawn comparisons with Australia and Hong Kong — both countries that enforced stringent border controls when they had low numbers of infections and seemed to have the virus under control, only to see a virus re-emerge.
A lockout was enforced in the australian state of Victoria and a curfew was put in place in Melbourne. Victoria — a state of around 6 million people — had more than 7,800 reported coronavirus cases and 275 deaths as of Thursday.
There are about 1,000 reported cases in Hong Kong — home to some 7.5 million residents — including 32 in a critical situation.
Sixty-six men died. The city has not instituted a lockdown given the current outbreak, but people must wear masks in public or face a fine, public meetings are restricted to two people and restaurants and bars must close at night except for takeaways.
On Thursday, Ardern noted that within 24 hours of the first confirmed community coronavirus outbreaks, Confirmed Zealand had introduced restrictions — a response which she said was quicker than in Hong Kong or Victoria.
"The pace and speed will also serve as an extra layer of reassurance," she said Thursday, before reiterating the refrain she had been saying since the outbreak began: "Moving fast and faster is always the best course of action."