New Zealand going into national lockdown as an early measure to curb the virus’s spread

National lockdown in New Zealand…learn more…

Wednesday, 18th August 2021

National lockdown to start in New Zealand from the night of Tuesday after 1 case of Covid-19 came to be detected in the country. Level 4 alert type lockdown is to be imposed in the entire country for a minimum of 3 days from midnight onwards. Auckland and Coromandel regions are to experience the same type of lockdown for 4-7 days. The country did not have this level of lockdown in over a year and the case of the covid-19 infection is taken as the first and foremost case of transmission within the community.

Jacinda Arden, the Prime Minister stated, “Delta has been called a gamechanger, and it is. It means we need to again go hard and early to stop the spread. We have seen what can happen elsewhere if we fail to get on top of it. We only get one chance.”

Under the level 4 alert type of lockdown, all the New Zealanders have been ordered to take shelter in one place referred to as a “bubble” that should only include their kin or immediate dependents. They will be allowed to go out of their house only when they need to purchase medical supplies or food or for any sort of exercise observing social distancing.

The PM said that once the genome related to the infection causing virus is sequenced New Zealand will get the confirmation as to whether it’s a case of Delta or not but that the country’s government would be functioning as per its assumption until it is informed otherwise.

“With Delta raging around the world … it was not a matter of if, but when. As it is, we are one of the last countries in the world to have the Delta variant in our community, so we have had the chance to learn from others,” she remarked.

“We’ve seen the dire consequences of taking too long to act in other countries, not least our neighbours,” she stated, alluding to the Australian viral outbreak which had given the country Australia a real hard time.

Healthcare personnel haven’t been able to detect a co-relation between the case of infection and the border facilities in the country. The case of infection in question is that of a man aged 58 coming from Devonport, Auckland. He tested positive on the 14th; i.e. Saturday. Therefore his period of infection is likely to have begun on the 12th. He along with his spouse had journeyed to New Zealand’s Coromandel region around Friday and then they had come back to Auckland on the 15th. Until now the country’s Ministry of Health has picked 23 locations of focus- 13 locations in and nearby to Coromandel and nearly 10 locations in Auckland.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield, director of health, New Zealand, stated that the case happens to be “a national issue”. “Because we cannot link the case to the border at this point, it is possible there are other cases around Auckland and other possible chains of transmission – people from around the country will have travelled to Auckland, and back to other parts of New Zealand…“It requires us all to be part of the response, and hard work from everyone across the country will help us get on top of this outbreak.”

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

The Guardina