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New Zealand has been praised for its handling of the pandemic – only 25 deaths from coronavirus have been recorded in a country with a population of five million.
But on Sunday, nearly two million residents were ordered to stay home since midnight when a third level of quarantine was introduced: schools and businesses, except those that provide essential services, were closed.
“The key is to ask the people of Auckland to stay home to avoid the risk of spread,” the head of government said. According to her, these types of measures are taken “preventively if it is one of the most widespread varieties of COVID, so we must be very careful.”
The quarantine is introduced in Auckland after three members of a local family have been diagnosed with coronavirus. Authorities are concerned about these “new and active” infections because there was no clear source of transmission.
The city is also shutting down from the rest of New Zealand: entry and exit into the city for the next three days will be severely restricted.
The rest of the country will be subject to second-level restrictions: residents will be required to wear masks on public transport and gatherings will be limited to a hundred people.
“I know we all feel the same when that happens, over and over again,” he said. “But remember, we’ve already experienced it, which means we know how to get out of it, together.”
Local health officials said a woman working for an international flight service that provides laundry and food services, as well as her daughter, was diagnosed with a coronavirus on Saturday, and a positive test was also obtained for the husband of a woman on Sunday. A fourth member of the family developed symptoms similar to COVID-19, but the test was negative.
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