New Zealand’s Biggest City Ordered Into Lockdown After Discovery Of Three COVID Cases

New Zealand’s biggest city has been plunged back into lockdown following the discovery of three positive cases of COVID-19. 

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been praised throughout the pandemic for her stringent moves to control the virus in New Zealand. With a population of around five million, the country has has managed to make it through the past year with only 25 deaths and 2,330 cases.

The latest discovery of coronavirus in Auckland keeps in line with Ardern’s ‘hard and early’ action, with a three-day lockdown imposed on the city that will require residents to stay at home.

All of Auckland’s 1.7 million people will be required to remain indoors, except for essential shopping and work. Non-essential retail and schools will close for three days, with hopes the government will be able to assess the situation for any community transmission and complete further testing.

She continued, ‘That means staying in your bubble, other than for essential personal movement. People should work from home unless that is not possible. If you go outside your home, please maintain physical distancing of two metres outside, or if you’re in a controlled environment where you know others present, one metre.’

Ardern added, ‘With the working assumption, just in case, it could be one of the more transmissible strains of COVID that we need to act with a high degree of caution around.’

Customers will not be allowed to enter shops unless it’s a ‘supermarket, dairy, butcher, fishmonger, greengrocer, petrol station, pharmacy or permitted health service’, according to New Zealand’s COVID-19 website.

The PM said, ‘The most important lessons we’ve learned from the times that we have stamped out flare-ups successfully before, and from cases we’ve seen overseas where outbreaks have gotten away is the need to go hard and early.’