New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, on Saturday, announced that Auckland, the country’s largest city will need to go into a seven-day lockdown from Sunday, with the rest of the country to be put under level 2 restrictions.
The announcement was made after a new case of coronavirus of unknown origin was recorded.
On February 17, Ardern had announced that the lockdown imposed on Auckland was being rolled back despite a family of three reported infected with the UK strain of the virus. Ardern said she did not believe the transmission was widespread. The city was initially put into a snap lockdown meant to last for three days.
The patient who developed symptoms on Tuesday is said to have contracted an infectious strain of the virus. The person has visited several public places between Tuesday and Saturday.
The lockdown will allow residents to leave their homes only to shop for essential items or essential work. Auckland currently has about 12 cases of the virus.
New Zealand has recorded just 2,000 cases of the coronavirus since the virus broke out in the country for the first time in summer last year. It has been one of the developed nations to have successfully prevented the virus from spreading rapidly with its strict lockdown measures along with quarantining and contact tracing.
