NZ: Fresh Outbreak Could Lead to Local Lockdowns

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced the nation’s latest COVID-19 response framework, which states that if there is another outbreak, separate regions would likely move up alert levels in an effort to contain it.

Changes to the alert level system and framework mean that, in the event of cases, rather than apply the framework nationally, the government would look to apply the Alert Level system at a localised or regional level in the first instance.

Speaking to media outside Parliament, Ardern said the plan was based on evidence she has seen from around the world.

“It is designed to give the public, and our business community as much certainty as we can around what to expect if new cases inside our borders are found. And that is something we all must prepare for.”

“We have been 75 days without community transmission here in New Zealand, but COVID is now exploding outside our borders and every country we have sought to replicate or have drawn from in the fight against COVID has now experienced further community outbreaks.”

“We only need to look to Victoria, New South Wales, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea to see examples of other places that like us had the virus under control at a point in time only to see it emerge again.”

“This does not mean anyone has failed- it means perfection in the response to a virus, and a pandemic, is just not possible. That is certainly the case as we see this pandemic continue to grow.”

When New Zealand first closed its international border, there were 240,000 coronavirus cases globally. According to the World Health Organisation, the global infection rate is nearing 13 million cases – a fifty-fold increase.

New modelling by Rodney Jones indicates there will be over 100,000 new cases a day in the US by the end of the month, nearly 70,000 cases a day in India, and nearly 10,000 cases a day across Europe by early August.

“We can already see that with New Zealand’s economy more open than nearly anywhere in the world because of the steps we took to break the chain of transmission under lockdown,” Ardern said.

“Our plan moving forward seeks to protect that position and minimise any economic impact of future cases. So in the event of new community cases, we would move immediately to implement our “Stamp it Out” approach again.”

Ardern emphasised that the priority moving forward was to control any cases with the least intrusive measures, and over the smallest area possible. This method is designed to avoid the entire country returning to Alert Levels 3 or 4 as a measure of last resort.

In practical terms, this means that if there was a case or a number of cases in a community, then strong restrictions would only be applied locally in a neighbourhood, town or city to contain the virus., while the country would remain at Alert Level 1 nationally.

“The local measures to contain the case would involve rapid contact tracing and isolation of cases and their contacts, scaled up and targeted testing of people connected to the case, such as workmates, those they live with or those in their neighbourhood.”