Covid: In New Zealand, immediate confinement in Auckland after new outbreak
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Covid – An outbreak of the coronavirus was detected this weekend in New Zealand, where three members of the same family, including a woman who works for a catering company serving international flights, have tested positive. Thus, on Sunday, February 14, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered a three-day confinement in Auckland (North).
1.7 million residents will be asked to stay at home as of midnight Sunday. Schools and businesses will remain closed on Monday, except for businesses considered “essential.”
Part of the puzzle is missing to find the source of the pollution
“There are new and active infections,” Health Minister Chris Hepkins said, and said the source of the contamination had not yet been determined. “There is still a missing piece of the puzzle,” he said, adding that health authorities were also looking “to see if Covid-19 could be elsewhere in the community and whether it is circulating.”
New Zealand authorities have played down any relationship with meals on the plane, asserting that eight days have passed between the infected woman’s last working day and her positive test.
New Zealand recorded several cases of Covid-19 three weeks ago, ending a period of more than two months without any contamination.
Less than 2,000 cases and 25 deaths in New Zealand
The origin of these cases was traced back to a hotel where people arriving from abroad were placed in quarantine. The three injured are a woman and her daughter, who tested positive on Saturday, and the father on Sunday. All staff at the girl’s school and other students will be tested.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has canceled her Auckland engagements to return to Wellington to keep up with the situation.
New Zealand’s record in combating Covid-19 abroad has been hailed, with the archipelago’s total number of infections below 2,000 since the start of the pandemic. In total, 25 deaths have been attributed to Covid-19 in this country.
New Zealand has closed its borders to foreign travelers since March, and imposed a strict five-week lockdown last spring.
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