WELLINGTON – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Saturday that the country’s largest city, Auckland, would enter a seven-day closure from early Sunday morning after a new local coronavirus case of unknown origin.
This comes two weeks after nearly 2 million Auckland residents were immersed in a three-day fast closure when a family of three was diagnosed with the UK’s most transmissible variant of the new coronavirus that causes COVID- 19.
Health officials, who were unable to immediately confirm how the person became infected, said genome sequencing of the new infection was underway.
The patient presented with symptoms on Tuesday and is thought to be infectious as early as Sunday, officials said. The person has visited several public places during this period.
“Based on that, we are in the unfortunate but necessary position to protect the Aucklanders again,” Ardern said, announcing the closure.
Health authorities were trying to find out if the new case was related to the previous February cluster, which now has 12 infections.
Ardern claimed that the blockade, with level 3 restrictions, will allow people to leave home just to do shopping and essential work. Public premises will remain closed. Restrictions in the rest of the country will be reduced to level 2 restrictions, including limits on public meetings.
New Zealand, one of the most successful developed countries in controlling the spread of the pandemic, has seen just over 2,000 cases of coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic.
A Twenty20 cricket match in Auckland between New Zealand and Australia, scheduled for Friday, will be played in Wellington without a crowd, New Zealand Cricket said.
The new restrictions also complicated the yacht race at the America’s Cup Event scheduled to begin March 6 in the port of Auckland. The America’s Cup Event said on Twitter that it was working “through the implications”.