AUCKLAND - New Zealand locked down nursing homes nationwide Wednesday after a 102-day streak without the coronavirus ended, as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the outbreak could force her to postpone next month's general election.
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 face masks 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 realize 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 Organization 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 affected if the outbreak could not be contained.
"We're seeking advice from the Electoral Commission, just so that we make sure we have all options open to us," she said.
"No decisions yet, as you can imagine, have been made."
Ardern's center-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.
Agence France-Presse
WELLINGTON - New Zealanders mingled with friends and hit the shopping malls for the first time in seven weeks Thursday as a national lockdown ended and businesses faced a "new normal" minimizing the constant threat of coronavirus.
A long-awaited haircut was the top priority for many Kiwis after almost two months in isolation, with queues of tangle-headed customers forming at barbers before dawn.
Thursday's changes, which put New Zealand at Level Two on its four-tier alert system, also allow Kiwis to break their quarantine "bubble" and meet up with friends and wider family members.
"People are looking to get back to normal and being at Level Two will allow everybody to at least function to a degree," retailer Mike Leigh told AFP.
Downtown streets in Wellington were once again jammed with traffic, although the usual crush on the capital's commuter trains was non-existent.
Instead, red and green stickers were plastered on seats, indicating where passengers could sit while still maintaining social distancing.
The city's main railway station smelled strongly of disinfectant as cleaners mopped and scrubbed between each influx of office workers.
Outside the station, Leigh stood at a makeshift stall selling brightly colored face masks at NZ$15 (US$9) apiece.
A carpenter by trade, he has not worked at his regular job since the lockdown began and spotted a gap in the market for facemasks, which were seldom worn in New Zealand before the pandemic.
"It's been going pretty good, I've sold about eight or 10 of them this morning, my wife makes them," he said, adding "we'll probably have to get a website".
'NOT OUT OF THE WOODS'
At the suburban Queensgate shopping mall, there was extra security to ensure crowds did not congregate too closely before retailers raised their shutters for the first time since late March.
Shops prominently displayed the maximum number of customers allowed inside alongside signs proclaiming "one in, one out".
New Zealand, with a population of five million, has recorded only 21 coronavirus deaths and kept new cases to single figures over the past month.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was hoping to catch up with her family face to face.
"I'm actually really looking forward to giving my sister a hug. I haven't seen her for a couple of months because I haven’t been home," she said earlier this week.
But authorities have warned there is no place for complacency and businesses of all types must use logbooks to record customer details in case there is an outbreak.
There are also stringent protocols surrounding the use of personal protective equipment and sanitizers that are likely to remain in force long-term.
"It's not difficult, it's more a matter of not forgetting that I have to do it after every client," Wellington barber Dali Toma said, wiping down his chair.
Restaurateur Stephen Morris said the way his Mediterranean eatery Avida operated had fundamentally changed.
Capacity has been reduced by more than a third to 92, with tables removed to allow more space between customers, and staff numbers and opening hours cut.
Morris was concerned the upsurge in business as people celebrated the end of lockdown could be followed by a downturn as the economic impact of the pandemic sank in.
"We're very much the CBD crowd, but how many office blocks with be full?" he said.
"If they're working from home, then all of a sudden, we're not getting full... we're not out of the woods yet."
Agence France-Presse
WELLINGTON -- New Zealanders queued for burgers, fries and coffee takeaway on Tuesday after they were freed from a month-long lockdown, which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern credited with eliminating domestic transmission of the coronavirus.
Around 400,000 people returned to work after Ardern shifted the country's alert level down a notch, loosening some of the tough movement restrictions that shut down businesses for weeks.
"It’s hard to explain how good this tastes," Christopher Bishop, a lawmaker, said on Twitter after posting a picture with a take away coffee cup.
Long queues of cars snaked up to McDonald's Corp outlets in Auckland and Wellington from the early hours as people sought a fast food fix.
"We got quarter pounders, Big Macs, drinks ... I've still got two cheeseburgers left but I can't finish them," Tai Perez, who arrived at a McDonald's outlet in Auckland at 4 a.m., was quoted as saying by the New Zealand Herald.
New Zealand's 5 million residents were subjected to one of the strictest lockdowns in the world in response to the coronavirus pandemic, with Ardern shutting down much of the country from March 26.
Ardern said those measures had paid off. New Zealand has reported just 1,122 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 19 deaths, one of the lowest tallies in the world.
"We can say with confidence that we do not have community transmission in New Zealand. The trick now is to maintain that," Ardern told Radio New Zealand on Tuesday.
There was growing debate among officials and academics about the terminology that should be used for New Zealand's status in relation to the coronavirus spread, with some saying "elimination" would not allow for recurrent small numbers of cases. They point to the fact that the country reported five new cases and one death yesterday.
"When I talk about elimination it does not mean zero cases, it means zero tolerance for cases," Ardern said. "The idea of COVID being completely gone, that is eradication - so there are important differences there."
New Zealand is maintaining several social distancing policies despite the step down in the alert level with malls pubs, hairdressers and other public shopping areas to stay shut for at least another two weeks.
Siouxsie Wiles, a microbiologist and associate professor at the University of Auckland, was among those warning the virus could return if lockdown measures were eased too quickly.
"If we turn our backs for a minute, we’ll be on the path to a serious outbreak once again. And we’ve seen this happen overseas," Wiles wrote in a column on the online news site The Spinoff.
-reuters-
SYDNEY - New Zealand will stick to its tough curbs to combat the coronavirus, despite some early signs the spread of the illness has been stabilizing, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.
The country's 67 new infections were the lowest in five days, taking its tally to just over 1,100. New Zealand has reported one death.
"Our actions for the remainder of the period in level four will be about doubling down to ensure the gains made in the first half are not squandered in the second," Ardern told reporters in Wellington.
Level-four curbs allow people to take walks or go to supermarkets for essentials, but they are required to stay 2 meters (7 ft) apart.
"I don't want New Zealand to be at level four for a minute longer than needed, but equally there is no plan to move from level four early," Ardern added.
New Zealand started a four-week total lockdown of its population of about 5 million late in March, and declared a national emergency to slow the spread of the virus.
People have been told to stay home with all non-essential services, schools and offices shut for a month, amid warnings that offenders face large fines and even jail.
New Zealand has fewer infections than many other countries, such as neighboring Australia, which has more than 5,700 infections, with five new deaths taking the toll to 40 on Monday.
Nearly half of New Zealand's cases were related to overseas travel, with cases of community transmission just about 2%.
The increase in cases was leveling off and exponential growth had been avoided, Ashley Bloomfield, the director-general of health, told a separate briefing.
"The only way to ensure the numbers will drop is to keep doing what we are doing," he said, adding that he wanted to see daily numbers drop before backing an easing of curbs.
-Reuters-
