New Zealand’s COVID-19 lockdown is extended by four days

Jacinda Ardern has extended New Zealand’s coronavirus lockdown by four days as the country continues to battle its second wave of infection. 

Aucklanders were expecting tough level three restrictions to be eased at midnight on Wednesday but the prime minister pushed that back to 11.59pm on Sunday.

From next week the city will be placed under level two restriction, along with the rest of the nation, meaning cafes and restaurants can reopen but there is still a limit on gatherings. 

Residents must also continue to adhere to social distancing rules.

The alert level will be reviewed on September 6 and may be dropped to level one, meaning all restrictions are eased expect for international travel.

Ms Ardern said the government and health officials wanted to ensure they had contained the outbreak before they moved to a lower level. 

Face masks will become mandatory on all public transport across the country from Monday to reduce the risk of the virus spreading. 

The announcement came as the country recorded nine new cases, taking the total active cases to 123. 

The largest cluster is based in Auckland, which was part of the reason for extending the lockdown, Ms Ardern said.  

‘This is a contained cluster. But it is our biggest one. And that means the tail will be long, and the cases will keep coming for a while to come,’ she said during the media briefing on Monday.

‘What we need to do is put ourselves in the best long-term position to manage it successfully, and in the most contained way we can. 

‘Ultimately, our goal needs to be managing this cluster from Level Two as soon as we feel confident we can do that. That means feeling confident we have the perimeter of the cluster well understood and defined, and are not seeing too many cases cropping up that we haven’t found through contact tracing.’

She said the elimination strategy was the best approach for the long-term benefit of New Zealand.

Adding that they were expecting to see new cases pop up over the next several weeks but heavy restrictions would not need to be imposed every time a new case appeared. 

Ms Ardern encouraged New Zealanders to be vigilant in the weeks ahead by continuing to social distance and wash their hands. 

She said in the coming weeks thousands of tests will be done and hundreds of contact tracers would be hard at work to stamp out the virus.

‘We have made a choice, and we have a clear plan that means we can get through however long this pandemic is in the world, and keep as much normality, including for our economy, as possible. 

‘If anyone country knows how to bounce back, it is us. If it feels hard right now, that’s because it is – 2020 has frankly been terrible. But we’ve been strong, we’ve been kind and we’re doing really well.’

The mandatory wearing of face masks comes after several cases contracted the deadly virus on a bus journey between strangers. 

‘This isn’t a decision we took lightly. But we know that masks protect you, and the people around you, and we now have a real-life example of that,’ Ms Ardern said.

‘They limit the chance of COVID-19 spreading in places where it is often harder to distance yourself, and to trace people.’

The nation had been the envy of the world for its handling of the COVID-19 crisis, with 101 days without a single case of community transmission.

New Zealanders had been enjoying the return of their usual freedoms after an autumn lockdown seemed to have been effective in eliminating the deadly virus.

It has been just under two weeks since the country was thrown back into lockdown after the new cases began to emerge. The source of the outbreak remains unknown.