New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has plunged Auckland into a draconian three-day lockdown after just three new coronavirus cases were recorded amongst the capital’s population of 1.5 million.
Officials said the rest of the country will also be placed under stringent restrictions but will avoid another economy-wrecking shutdown after an Auckland mother, father and daughter tested positive for the virus.
Parts of Auckland were shut down on November 12 last year after a single case of Covid-19 was recorded. In that instance, the infected person was a female university student with no immediate links to foreign travel.
In Australia, health officials are refusing to rule out extending Victoria State’s snap five-day lockdown as cases of the Kent mutant variant first detected in England around Christmas are recorded.
Victoria, which has recorded around 20,640 cases and 820 deaths, will close schools and ban private gatherings while masks will be required everywhere.
New Zealand has not started a vaccination programme – unlike in Britain, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has inoculated nearly 15 million people in a bid to bring the cycle of lockdowns to an end.
Ms Ardern announced that the jabs rollout will start on February 20 amid mounting pressure to start vaccination for the country’s five million people after the country recorded just 26 deaths and 2,300 cases.
The New Zealand government has refused to lift restrictions until it achieves Zero Covid – with methods of suppression including border controls, tight domestic curbs and an aggressive track and trace system combined.
In Britain, however, government scientists have recommended lifting lockdown measures when 1,000 daily cases are recorded amid pressure from Tory backbenchers who fear that shutdowns cause massive economic and societal damage – and inflict more harm than the virus.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has plunged Auckland into a draconian three-day lockdown. Pictured: Nurses at a Covid-19 testing station in Freyberg Place in November
In Australia, health officials are refusing to rule out extending Victoria State’s snap five-day lockdown as cases of the Kent mutant variant first detected in England are recorded. Pictured, Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport where a person tested positive for Covid
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (pictured) has returned to Wellington for briefings after three members of a South Auckland family tested positive
So far, the UK has recorded nearly 117,000 Covid-related deaths, 13,308 new cases in the last 24 hours – and endured three crippling lockdowns which has seen entire sectors of the economy crushed by government action.
Cases of coronavirus are regularly being caught among travellers returning to the isolated Pacific island country, who are required by government mandate to spend two weeks in quarantine upon arrival.
Auckland, which has a population of 1.5 million, will be moved to Level 3 restrictions from midnight on Sunday for three days, meaning residents are not allowed to move freely until midnight on Wednesday.
Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins announced that health officials were moving rapidly to test and isolate close contacts. ‘There is a number of gaps in our knowledge around these cases,’ he said.
Pressure has been mounting on New Zealand Prime Minister Ms Ardern to start vaccinations for the country’s 5 million people to take advantage of its rare position of having virtually eliminated the virus domestically.
‘Last year we indicated the vaccine would arrive in quarter two, and earlier this year we updated that to quarter one,’ Ms Ardern told reporters. ‘It’s pleasing to be receiving doses this early in quarter one.’
Both New Zealand and neighbouring Australia have formally approved the vaccine jointly developed by US drugmaker Pfizer Inc and Germany’s BioNTech.
The Australian government has said it expects to begin inoculations by the end of this month, without giving a specific date.
However, Ms Ardern said the vaccination programs would have no immediate impact on a stalled trans-Tasman travel ‘bubble’.
Auckland has entered lockdown. Pictured, an Americold cool storage company
The city recorded three Covid cases. Pictured, a relatively deserted Parnell Rise, Auckland
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has plunged Auckland into a draconian three-day lockdown. Pictured: A person walks through the CBD on October 8 in Auckland
Australia and New Zealand had hoped to allow bilateral travel by the end of March, but fresh coronavirus outbreaks in Australia have stalled those plans.
Ms Ardern said border restrictions could be eased if there was evidence that vaccines reduce transmission.
‘That will be a significant step-change if we see that evidence emerge and I’m sure that will make a difference to travel in the world,’ she said. ‘But at this stage, it won’t necessarily make a difference.’
Ms Ardern said New Zealand’s approximate 12,000 border workers would be the first to be vaccinated, followed by their household contacts.
Healthcare workers and high-risk people like the elderly would be next, before vaccinations for the wider population start in the second half of the year.
‘We have pre-purchased enough vaccines to cover all New Zealanders and to do so for free, and the Pacific as well,’ she said.
New Zealand’s medicines regulator is also in talks with AstraZeneca, Novavax and Janssen Biotech regarding approval for their Covid-19 vaccines
An international traveller makes their way inside Novotel Melbourne
A general view of an empty street in the central business district of Melbourne
Melbourne has become deserted as the city enters its second day of a five-day long lockdown