Coronavirus Is Back in New Zealand After 102 Days - The Wall Street Journal

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, left, and Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield, right, at a news conference in Wellington on Tuesday.

Photo: /Associated Press

By Stephen Wright

Updated Aug. 11, 2020 8:04 am ET

WELLINGTON, New Zealand—New Zealand reported its first locally transmitted cases of the coronavirus in 102 days, prompting authorities to reimpose restrictions in its biggest city as they scramble to prevent a wider outbreak.

Auckland residents were told to stay at home and nonessential businesses such as restaurants were ordered to close for an initial three days after four members of the same family tested positive for the virus. The restrictions in the city, home to about 1.5 million people, are the second-highest of the government’s four-level system.

Health authorities said it wasn’t yet known how the family contracted the coronavirus, but they hadn’t traveled overseas.

“Moving an entire city, and New Zealand’s largest city, into level 3 restrictions is not a decision we take lightly,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Tuesday. “This move means that we can be cautious, but also make sure that we have more information before we make any decisions that have a longer-term impact.”

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Attempts were being made to trace all close and casual contacts of the family for testing and isolation. Health officials also promised to test all people working on the border and at hotels used to quarantine arrivals within several days.

Other parts of the country will face a lower level of restriction that recommends physical distancing and limits travel to essential purposes only.

New Zealand, aided by its remote island geography, had effectively eliminated the virus within its borders after the government imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in April and May, keeping people at home and shutting most businesses.

But it is now facing the same challenges as nations such as Australia and Singapore, which appeared to triumph over the virus only to face an unexpected resurgence after the virus exploited weaknesses in defenses. The Australian city of Melbourne imposed a six-week lockdown last week as it fought to keep an increase in new infections from surging out of control.

“The fact that these new cases have no known link to international travel or people working at the border makes the situation more serious,” said Michael Plank, a statistics expert at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

“This means there could be several links in the chain and a larger number of cases that we don’t yet know about. That’s why it’s important to take swift, decisive action,” he said.

Ms. Ardern, who rose to international prominence for her empathetic response to the attack on mosques in Christchurch last year that killed 51 worshipers, has been campaigning for re-election based on her government’s success in stopping the spread of the virus.

Her Labour Party, which leads a center-left coalition, had soared above 50% in recent opinion polls ahead of the national vote set for Sept. 19.

Some critics had said the severity of the lockdown was unnecessary, but Ms. Ardern, deploying slogans such as “go hard and go early,” defended it as the country’s best chance of defeating the pathogen and creating the conditions needed for economic recovery.

Write to Stephen Wright at stephen.wright@wsj.com

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