Auckland is forced into a snap THREE-DAY lockdown after recording three positive Covid tests – the first signs of the virus in the country in 21 days
- Auckland has entered a snap three-day lockdown after discovery of new cases
- Three members South Auckland family tested positive to Covid-19 on Sunday
- The mother is a worker at LSG Sky Chefs, an airport laundry and catering facility
- The daughter is a student at Papatoetoe High School, which has been closed
- New Zealand’s last case of community transmission was a woman on January 24
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced that Auckland will be locked down for three days after three positive Covid tests were announced on Sunday.
The last recorded cases of community transmission were 21 days ago.
Three members of a south Auckland family – a father, mother and daughter – tested positive for the virus.
On Sunday afternoon Ardern announced that Auckland would move to level three restrictions from 11.59pm tonight for three days, meaning residents would not be free to move around until midnight on Wednesday.
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Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins said health officials were moving rapidly to test and isolate close contacts.
Aucklanders will enter a three-day lockdown after recording three new cases of community transmission for the first time in 21 days. Pictured: Nurses speak to people waiting in line outside a pop up Covid-19 testing station in Freyberg Place in November
The mother’s employer LSG Sky Chefs, an airport laundry and catering facility at Auckland airport, has been listed as an exposure site
‘There is a number of gaps in our knowledge around these cases,’ he said.
The mother works at works at LSG Sky Chefs, an airport laundry and catering facility at Auckland airport, while the daughter is a student at Papatoetoe High School.
The venues along with supermarket Pak n Save Manukau, in Cavendish Drive, have been listed as exposure sites, Stuff reported earlier on Sunday.
The school is undergoing deep cleaning and will be closed on Monday and Tuesday as a precaution, with a testing facility to be set up on the campus.
Another family member from their household is currently undergoing testing.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (pictured) has returned to Wellington for briefings after three members of a South Auckland family tested positive
Papatoetoe High School (pictured) has been closed and a testing facility will be erected on the campus for members of the school community
Health authorities are conducting genomic sequencing on the family to determine whether they are infected with one of the more transmissible variants reported overseas.
Another case of coronavirus was recorded on Sunday in managed isolation, bringing the daily total to four.
Manukau ward councillor Alf Filipaina has urged members of the community to come forward for testing.
‘In south Auckland, our community are just more vulnerable than any other,’ he said.
‘I’m saying to people, get tested, it has to be. We don’t want to end up to where were were (during the last outbreak).’
The new cases come a day after New Zealand’s first Covid-related death in five months and three weeks since the country’s last case of community transmission, a woman who tested positive on January 24 after leaving hotel quarantine.
On Saturday, Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said a person tested positive for the virus while in mandatory isolation died after being moved to North Shore Hospital in Auckland.
The fatality was New Zealand’s 26th Covid-related death since the start of the pandemic.
Sunday’s infections are the first locally acquired cases in New Zealand since January 24 Pictured: A person walks through the CBD on October 8 in Auckland
