New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Saturday a new week-long confinement in Auckland, the most populous city in the country (which is not, however, the capital, it being in Wellington).
This confinement, which begins this Sunday and will last until Sunday, March 7, was decided after the discovery of a cluster of an unknown origin within the city.
The inhabitants will therefore be forced to stay at home, except for essential shopping or jobs deemed essential.
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The rest of New Zealand is subject to a level 2 alert threshold, that is to say restrictions prohibiting in particular all public gatherings, Jacinda Ardern said in a press conference.
In mid-February, the city of Auckland, which has a population of nearly 2 million, had already been put on a three-day flash lockdown, after a family of three was diagnosed positive for the most transmissible British variant. of Covid-19.
New Zealand is the developed country with the lowest number of Covid-19 cases during the first wave of the epidemic.
With just over 2,000 cases and 26 deaths since the start of the crisis, this country has been ranked by the Lowy Institute as the "
best student
" in the world in terms of managing the health crisis.
Its health strategy, which consists of striking quickly and strongly as soon as the slightest warning signal is detected, seems so far to have proved its effectiveness.