New Zealand returns to restrictions due to covid-19 1:13
(CNN) - New Zealand reported 13 new cases of coronavirus in the community on Thursday as the country tackles a new outbreak that ended an enviable streak of more than 100 days without locally transmitted infections.
The new outbreak, now totaling 17 cases, has prompted the country to lock down its most populous city as authorities rush to trace the source of the outbreak. New Zealand now has 36 active infections, including imported cases. In total, the country has reported 1,238 confirmed cases and 22 deaths.
Authorities warn that the number of cases is likely to rise, raising the possibility of a three-day lockdown being extended in Auckland and casting doubt on the date of the country's next general election.
"As we all learned from our first experience with covid, once you identify a group, it grows before it slows down," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a press conference Thursday. "We should hope that is the case here."
The New Zealand outbreak is a dramatic turn of events for the country, which was heralded as a world leader in how it handled the outbreak. For months, life largely returned to normal, and the country went 102 days without a locally acquired case.
LEE : New Zealand adds 100 days without community transmission of coronavirus. This is how he did it
But on Tuesday, New Zealand reported that a family of four in Auckland had been infected with coronavirus, despite having no history of foreign travel and no connection to any known cases. That prompted Ardern to reintroduce coronavirus restrictions, including closing access to retirement homes, imposing the Auckland blockade, and limiting gatherings across the country to no more than 100 people.
On Thursday, New Zealand Health Director Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced the 13 new locally transmitted cases, all related to the original four.
It is not clear what caused the latest outbreak. For months, New Zealand has imposed strict immigration controls; Aside from a few exceptions, the border is closed to all non-New Zealanders, and anyone entering the country must spend 14 days in a state quarantine facility.
Authorities have used genome sequencing to investigate the source of the outbreak, but have found no link between community cases and imported cases at New Zealand's managed isolation quarantine facilities, Bloomfield said. "What we do know is that the genome sequence of the new cases is much more like the patterns in the UK and Australia," he said.
One of the original four cases worked at Americold, an American temperature-controlled storage company. On Thursday, authorities announced that three more Americold staff members had tested positive, and seven of the cases announced Thursday are relatives of Americold employees.
Authorities are testing surfaces at the Americold warehouse for COVID-19, but Ardern stressed that the most likely cause of the outbreak was person-to-person transmission. "We want to discard everything," he said.
LEE : New Zealand registers the first local cases of coronavirus in 102 days
The new group from New Zealand comes just weeks before the national elections scheduled for September 19. Parliament was scheduled to dissolve on Wednesday, but Ardern has postponed it to August 17, and has not yet announced whether the elections will go ahead as originally planned.
The country hopes to avoid a situation similar to neighboring Australia, where the state of Victoria reports hundreds of new cases every day. The state currently has more than 7,800 active cases and has reported at least 275 deaths from coronavirus, as of Thursday. Like New Zealand, Australia has imposed strict border controls, but the current outbreak has been linked to bad practices at the border.
On Wednesday, Ardern emphasized that the situation in Australia - and the situation in countries around the world - showed how important it was for New Zealand to comply with the new restriction rules.
“So far, our response to the virus has worked, it opened up our economy and our communities, and gave New Zealanders freedoms that we cherish, and we all want to get back there as soon as we can. But success depends on all of us working together, ”he said.
"We know how to get through this, but we also know that we don't have to look far to see what it might mean if we don't get over it."
CNN's Isaac Yee contributed reporting.
New Zealand
