Auckland
New Zealand went into lockdown mode on Wednesday, a day after new coronavirus cases were detected in Auckland, ending the country’s 102-day streak without the virus.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said authorities were scrambling to trace anyone who had been in contact with four Auckland residents who tested positive Tuesday, ending the dream run in which the virus had been contained at New Zealand´s borders.
A three-day stay-at-home order for Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city with a population of 1.5 million, was announced on Tuesday night and went into force at lunchtime on Wednesday.
Police in facemasks manned roadblocks on major roads in Auckland to enforce the new measures.
Ardern said health officials were also locking down aged care homes across the country because they could act as transmission hotspots.
“I realise how incredibly difficult this will be for those who have loved ones in these facilities, but it’s the strongest way we can protect and look after them,” she said.
There was panic buying at supermarkets across New Zealand and huge queues at coronavirus testing stations as Kiwis came to terms with the re-emergence of a virus many thought had been defeated.
New Zealand had been held up by the World Health Organisation as an example of how to contain the disease after recording only 22 deaths in a population of five million and preventing community transmission for more than three months.
Ardern said the return of coronavirus was “unsettling” but all efforts were being made to retrace the steps of the Auckland family of four who contracted it from an unknown source.
She said the September 19 election may be impacted if the outbreak could not be contained.
“We’re seeking advice from the Electoral Commission, just so that we make sure have all options open to us,” she said.
“No decisions yet, as you can imagine, have been made.” Ardern’s centre-left Labour Party has been riding high in opinion polls and is expected to win a second term.
The conservative National Party was open to the idea of a delay if conditions meant it was justified. “It’s going to be very difficult to have an election in mid-September when we are now mid-August. It is very little time,” National leader Judith Collins told TV3.
Italian regions have begun to order new periods of quarantines for people returning from higher-risk European countries such as Spain and Greece in a bid to stem the latest outbreaks of coronavirus.
Health authorities worry that Italians returning from vacations abroad may be bringing home the virus and passing it on during the summer when people are crowding outdoors, on beaches, at festivals or parties.
As the national government studies whether to reissue more stringent anti-Covid restrictions, such as making the wearing of masks mandatory in public, regions are already clamping down.
The president of Emilia Romagna on Wednesday was expected to sign an order mandating coronavirus tests for anyone returning to the region from Spain, Greece and Malta, all Schengen area countries where travel with Italy is unrestricted.
Those returning from Croatia will also be ordered to quarantine. A mandatory 14-day quarantine also begins today in the southern regions of Puglia and Campania for people returning from Spain, Greece and Malta.
Sicily is prepared to follow suit, its regional president said. “In the last two days we’ve logged numerous cases of Puglia residents who have tested positive after coming back from Greece, Malta, Spain, countries with a high viral circulation,” said Puglia’s regional president Michele Emiliano.—AFP
