COVID-19 Re-emerges in New Zealand

Lindsay Wong writes about the recent re-emergence of COVID-19 in New Zealand. The country had not recorded any new cases for 102 days, and the outbreak has heightened fears of a second wave. This article discusses the steps taken by the government to minimise spread of disease, specifically noting the various "levels" of restrictions.

New Zealand, the country that has been lauded for beating COVID-19, has witnessed a re-emergence of the virus after recording no new cases for 102 consecutive days. On August 11th, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that four new cases had been diagnosed in Auckland. The four cases were all from the same family. One family member contracted the virus at a frozen storage facility where they work, before unknowingly passing it to the other three, who then spread it further. Prior to this, there had only been 22 active cases in the whole country, with the diagnosed isolated at quarantine hotels. Immediately after, Auckland went into a strict three-day lockdown with stage three restrictions. Aucklanders were encouraged to minimize all contact, and to only leave their house to travel for work, shop or exercise. Schools, childcare centers and most businesses and services have closed, with only supermarkets remaining open. Restaurants and cafés continue to operate on a takeaway basis.

Since the second outbreak, health authorities have been working hard to trace the origin. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but there are multiple possibilities of the source of the virus. The most likely possibility is that the outbreak “came from overseas". Authorities are conducting an audit of all of New Zealand’s international flights. The virus could have re-entered the country via pilots or flight attendants who have laid over in hotels. Another proposed possibility is that there is a link between the Auckland storage facility and a Melbourne facility from the same company, as Melbourne has seen an upsurge of cases. The last possibility is that the virus could have re-entered New Zealand through Auckland’s ports, where there are thousands of workers. They will get tested as a precautionary measure. However, health authorities are prioritizing managing the current outbreak instead of looking for its source.

Just recently, the World Health Organization had praised New Zealand for containing the virus and not letting it become too widespread in the country. New Zealand was one of the few countries around the world to “beat” coronavirus. In early February, after a man in the Philippines became the first person outside of China to die from the virus, New Zealand immediately banned entry to any foreigner coming from or via China. Soon after, the government extended the flight ban to Iran (the origin of New Zealand’s first case), South Korea and northern Italy, which were all coronavirus hotspots. They closed their international borders early and went from stage two to stage four lockdown within four weeks. The government’s effective communication and the public’s compliance to regulations helped to keep the number of cases low, compared to the rest of the world. Eventually, there were no new cases for more than 100 days.

Within the last few weeks, although some social distancing measures were still in place, and borders were still closed to foreigners, life had gone back to "normal". Back in June, government officials had already warned the public that their weeks of complacency could be coming to an end. They feared a second wave was imminent, and they were right. The number of cases at the storage facility alone, where the first case was discovered, has now grown to 58 as of August 17th . While Auckland is currently experiencing stage three restrictions, the rest of the country is facing less strict stage two restrictions. These entail social distancing measures, although social gatherings of up to 100 people are permitted.

Elsewhere in Australasia, the Australian state of Victoria, where Melbourne is located, is experiencing a massive second wave. Hundreds of new cases are being recorded every day, while the rest of Australia is also experiencing an upsurge in cases. Across the world, some countries are yet to fend off the first wave, while others are caught up in a second. It looks like the world’s battle with COVID-19 is far from over.