The New Zealand government on Friday extended a lockdown in its largest city as the country has its first COVID-19 outbreak in more than three months.
The lockdown in Auckland began Wednesday and will continue for another 12 days after a cluster of 30 virus cases were discovered Tuesday, the Associated Press reported on Friday.
New Zealand had gone 102 days without any reported cases of coronavirus. Health authorities are investigating whether shipping workers are the source of the new recent outbreak.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the storage authorities would give time to isolate infected people.
“Together, we have lost COVID before,” Ardern said in an address. “We have held it for 102 days longer than any other country. We have been world responsible in our COVID response, with the result that many lives were saved and our economy went faster than almost anywhere else. We can do that all over again. “
New Zealand director general of health Ashley Bloomfield said health officials on Thursday completed more than 15,000 tests, adding that the results helped determine the overall spread of the outbreak cluster.
“All the cases so far, at this point, are connected. They are all part of one Auckland-based cluster, ”said Health Minister Chris Hipkins. “And that’s good news.”
According to Johns Hopkins University data, New Zealand has registered a total of 1,602 cases of coronavirus and 22 deaths.
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