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New Zealand’s summer of unlimited movement and social interaction has been abruptly halted by three new Covid-19 community affairs.
After an emergency cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern placed Auckland’s largest city in a quick, three-day lockout and reintroduced the social distance requirements for the rest of the country while authorities tried to find the source of the new infections. The Ministry of Health said on Monday that genomic sequencing is the most virulent strain of the virus in the UK.
“This result reinforces the decision to act swiftly and robustly against the latest cases to detect and eradicate the possibility of further transfer,” the ministry said.
This is a pandemic investigation for the South Pacific country, which has not had to impose any restrictions since August last year, when a community outbreak forced Auckland into a three-week closure. The fresh restrictions on operations could stave off the country’s strong economic rebound and would be a further setback for the establishment of a free travel zone with Australia, which is also struggling with a new outbreak in Victoria.
Police are checking vehicles on February 15 at a checkpoint near Auckland, New Zealand.
Photographer: Fiona Goodall / Getty Images
Australia and New Zealand have both closed their international borders since the start of the pandemic, requiring returning residents to be segregated in quarantine hotels.
The move from Auckland to warning level 3 means people are being asked to stay home and work remotely if possible. Schools, day care centers, shops and public venues were largely closed and gatherings were limited to ten people. The rest of New Zealand has been raised to alert level 2, which needs social distance, but schools and businesses remain open. Meetings are limited to 100 people.
The restrictions will affect sporting events, including the next round of the America’s Cup sailing regatta scheduled for Wednesday, and will prevent Aucklanders from traveling outside the region.
The new business is a family from South Auckland – a mother, father and daughter. In addition to visiting local shops, two of the people traveled to the North Island city of New Plymouth last weekend, where they visited a number of tourist attractions.
No additional community cases were reported on Monday. Health officials said they had identified ten close contacts of the infected household, six of whom completed negative tests with four results.
It is not yet clear how the family contracted the virus, but the woman works at LSG Sky Chefs, an airline catering company, where she handles laundry.
Ardern said several scenarios are being investigated. One is that the virus comes from a passenger in the transport, while the other is that it comes from international air crews, who in some cases have their uniforms cleaned at the facility where the infected woman works, she told Radio on Monday. New Zealand said. But the most likely scenario is human-to-human transmission, Ardern said.
The new restrictions initially apply until Wednesday at midnight, but will be reviewed daily.
(Add the latest health update in the ninth paragraph.)