New Zealand back in lockdown

[Taylucifer 5,249]

3 community cases in Auckland have surfaced New Zealand will be going back into lockdown. 

Auckland will be in alert level 3 (About the alert levels) for at least the next 72 hours and the rest of NZ will be in alert level 2. This will all be reviewed on a daily basis. Jacinda Ardern says that it is her plan to go hard and early.

About the community cases:

Spoiler

A mother, father and daughter from the same household in Papatoetoe, south Auckland, have tested positive, Chris Hipkins has announced. The mother works at LSG SkyChefs, an airport laundry and catering facility. LSG is part of the regular testing cycle, though it was not her last regular test (a recent negative surveillance swab was returned on January 18) but a community test that picked up the result, said Hipkins. She had not been at work since February 5.

There is one other household contact. Hipkins said they would act “with an abundance of caution” and confirmed the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, would be returning to Wellington this afternoon to be briefed and make decisions, and therefore not attending the Big Gay Out.

The mother and daughter have now returned positive tests with relatively low CT values, indicating they are new and active infections. Their test results came through late last night. The father was tested following their results and his result came through late this morning.

The mother “did the right thing”, added Ashley Bloomfield. Despite being regularly tested she had sought another test when she became ill. While there was a link to the border, “we have not identified yet the source of these cases and remain open-minded”, said Bloomfield. Precautions include the closure of Papatoetoe High School, where the daughter is a student, on Monday and Tuesday.

Aucklanders are encouraged to stay home and in their bubble other than for essential personal movement — including to go to work, school if they have to, or for local recreation. All public venues will be closed and businesses cannot offer services that involve close personal contact, unless it is a supermarket, primary produce retailer, pharmacy, petrol station or hardware store providing goods to trade customers, or it is an emergency or critical situation.

The rest of New Zealand, businesses and schools will remain open but with public health and physical distancing requirements. Across the country gatherings will be limited to 100 people and the seated and single server rule for hospitality will be in place.

The origin of the cases is not yet known and the Ministry of Health will be working hard to find the origin and are currently working on genomic sequencing to find which variant of  COVID it is and results are expected tonight. 

Vaccines are also expected to be available soon in New Zealand and will be free and voluntary. Roll out was expected to start on the 20th on February in Auckland with border workers and their families. Health care and essential workers will follow them in the second quarter of 2021 with public roll out expected in the second half of the year. Read more

More in-depth article

Live Updates

stay safe everyone

[Helxig 45,367]

I'm so upset    

I'm sorry, rest of the world, if that's selfish to say. Level 2 sucks and just makes work really difficult. Also my birthday party is in 6 days so idk how that's gonna go. I've been planning it for 2 months. Man 

[Emvee 8,833]

This pandemic would have been over long ago if we didn’t have dumb**** countries like the US politicizing it. Now countries like NZ, who did what they were supposed to do, are suffering again because this was prolonged so much 

[Rat Boy 43,832]

8 minutes ago, E Z said:

This pandemic would have been over long ago if we didn’t have dumb**** countries like the US politicizing it. Now countries like NZ, who did what they were supposed to do, are suffering again because this was prolonged so much 

Here in Australia we were doing so well but these new variants are really challenging our hotel quarantine systems. There used to be barely any hotel quarantine breaches but now there's one every week/fortnight - all connected back to the more infectious variants. 

[GagaSine 7,464]

Wow imagine if we had testing like this in US & Canada 

[CCSir 410]

24 minutes ago, E Z said:

This pandemic would have been over long ago if we didn’t have dumb**** countries like the US politicizing it. Now countries like NZ, who did what they were supposed to do, are suffering again because this was prolonged so much 

THIS. If only every single country had been as aggressive, we could have nipped it in the bud. It's all Coulda Woulda Shoulda of course, but man, this whole situation is something else. 

Really hoping we manage to overcome this one day. A life without human contact is a half-life. 

[DOJA CAT 1,833]

21 minutes ago, Mer Boy said:

Here in Australia we were doing so well but these new variants are really challenging our hotel quarantine systems. There used to be barely any hotel quarantine breaches but now there's one every week/fortnight - all connected back to the more infectious variants. 

Aleast now they’re prepared to actively put the states into lockdown when there is a case so we can try and exile it quickly 

[Taylucifer 5,249]

1 hour ago, Mer Boy said:

Here in Australia we were doing so well but these new variants are really challenging our hotel quarantine systems. There used to be barely any hotel quarantine breaches but now there's one every week/fortnight - all connected back to the more infectious variants. 

yeah I think the new variants are causing a mess and probably why we are going into lockdown cause we don't know what type it is

[StarstruckIllusion 53,565]

Damn. was rooting so hard for New Zealand. Luckily Jacinda wont **** around 

[Helxig 45,367]

17 minutes ago, StarstruckIllusion said:

Damn. was rooting so hard for New Zealand. Luckily Jacinda wont **** around 

She hasn't ****ed around, hence the lockdowns in Auckland and nationwide restrictions after 2 or 3 community spread cases. I guess I should be grateful for that! 

[alsemanche 97,808]

NZ is going into lockdown for 3 cases, meanwhile my country is reopening from a "lockdown" even though we still have 2-3k daily cases and a 20% or more positivity rate 

[vyniildisk 12,689]

1 hour ago, alsemanche said:

MZ is going into lockdown for 3 cases, meanwhile my country is reopening from a "lockdown" even though we still have 2-3k daily cases and a 20% or more positivity rate 

for 3 cases 

[TaylorSwift 162,479]

17 minutes ago, Dulo Peep said:

for 3 cases

Perth in Australia had five-day lockdown after 1 case

[vyniildisk 12,689]

3 minutes ago, 777777777777777777 said:

Perth in Australia had five-day lockdown after 1 case

woow teyh are really taking it seriously! no wonder they r truly living theur best life 

[Helxig 45,367]

37 minutes ago, Dulo Peep said:

woow teyh are really taking it seriously! no wonder they r truly living theur best life 

They throw the city straight into lockdown if there are specifically community cases that they can't trace back to the border. It's the only way to go. Last time they waited a few days and it was about to blow up again, so they know now to act fast. It's only for a few days-a week for now while they look into things, but could potentially be longer obviously