New Zealand would stick to its tough curbs to combat COVID-19, despite some early signs the spread of the illness has been stabilizing, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday.
The country’s 67 new infections were the lowest in five days, taking its tally to just more than 1,100. New Zealand has reported one death.
“Our actions for the remainder of the period in level four will be about doubling down to ensure the gains made in the first half are not squandered in the second,” Ardern told reporters in Wellington.
Photo: AP
Level-four curbs allow people to take walks or go to supermarkets for essentials, but they are required to stay 2m apart.
“I don’t want New Zealand to be at level four for a minute longer than needed, but equally there is no plan to move from level four early,” Ardern added.
New Zealand started a four-week total lockdown of its population of about 5 million 12 days ago, and declared a national emergency to slow the spread of the virus.
People have been told to stay home with all non-essential services, schools and offices shut for a month, amid warnings that offenders face large fines and even jail.
Nearly half of New Zealand’s cases are related to overseas travel, with cases of community transmission accounting for about 2 percent.
The increase in cases is leveling off and exponential growth has been avoided, New Zealand Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a separate briefing.
“The only way to ensure the numbers will drop is to keep doing what we are doing,” he said.
Meanwhile, German tourist Steffen Schmieg joked that his last option for getting home from New Zealand was to swim.
Schmieg is among an estimated 100,000 tourists who found themselves stranded in New Zealand after it went into lockdown.
Late last week, officials relaxed the rules enough to allow tourists to begin catching connecting domestic flights and for charter flights to start operating.
About 12,000 Germans have signed up for a repatriation program and yesterday, Schmieg joined dozens of other Germans at the Christchurch Airport to catch a flight back to Frankfurt. The flight was chartered by the German government.
Schmieg, 26, said he traveled to New Zealand a month ago to visit a friend and tour the country.
He managed to see his friend in time, but has been holed up at an Airbnb since the lockdown began.
“I’ve been doing nothing,” he said. “Chilling, relaxing, eating too much.”
He said New Zealand was a safe place to stay and he was never too worried about getting home: “It’s been sweet as,” he said, using a local phrase that means everything is okay.
About as many British tourists as Germans have registered with officials as they also try to get home. Yet unlike Germany, Britain’s government is not planning any charter flights from New Zealand or Australia at this point, and is instead encouraging people to book one of the few commercial flights that are still available.
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