After a family of three in New Zealand’s largest city tested positive for the coronavirus, the city of Auckland has gone into a Level 3 lockdown. The rest of the country is on a Level 2 for the same amount of time. That requires physical distancing, greater record-keeping by businesses, and compulsory mask-wearing on public transportation. Mass gatherings will be limited to 100 people.
As a result of the New Zealand Lockdown, the next scheduled Prada Cup Finals race for February 16th has been postponed and the event village will not be open to the public during this time. No date for the race to continue has been set.
Auckland coronavirus officials will engage in a testing blitz to establish whether the virus has spread. In addition a border will be put in place around Auckland, but people will be able to cross the border by getting an exemption from the government.
The country has been widely praised for its handling of the pandemic, reporting just 25 deaths in a population of five million since the pandemic began a year ago.
Health officials said a mother, who works for a company providing laundry and catering services to international flights, and her daughter tested positive on Saturday, before the father returned a positive sample on Sunday.
New Zealand Director-General of Health Dr. Ashley Bloomfield said the initial focus was on the mother’s workplace “because of its obvious connections to the border”. But he added it was “too soon to rule in or out” any source of transmission and the woman had not been at work for eight days before testing positive.