New Zealanders are set to face new COVID-19 restrictions after nine cases of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 were detected in a single family that flew to Auckland for a wedding earlier this month, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday.
The so-called “red setting” of the country’s pandemic response includes heightened measures, such as required mask wearing and limits on gatherings, and the restrictions take effect today.
Ardern told reporters in Wellington that “red is not lockdown,” adding that businesses can stay open, and people can visit each other and move freely around the country.
Photo: AFP
“Our plan for managing Omicron cases in the early stage remains the same as [for the] Delta [variant of SARS-CoV-2], where we will rapidly test, contact trace and isolate cases and contacts in order to slow the spread,” Ardern said.
The country has managed to contain the spread of the Delta variant, with an average of about 20 new cases per day, but it has seen an increasing number of people arriving into the country and going into mandatory quarantine who are infected with Omicron.
That has put strain on the quarantine system and prompted the government to limit access for returning citizens, while it decides what to do about reopening its borders, angering many people who want to return to New Zealand.
About 93 percent of New Zealanders aged 12 or older are fully vaccinated, while 52 percent have had a booster shot. The country has just begun vaccinating children aged 5 to 11.
Ardern said that the family from the Nelson-Marlborough region attended a wedding and other events while in Auckland, with estimates saying that they came into contact with “well over 100 people at these events.”
“That means that Omicron is now circulating in Auckland and possibly the Nelson-Marlborough region, if not elsewhere,” she said.
The move to the red setting also affects Ardern personally. The prime minister was planning to get married this weekend, but as a result of the new restrictions the celebration is to be postponed.
“I just join many other New Zealanders who have had an experience like that as a result of the pandemic and to anyone who’s caught up in that scenario, I am so sorry,” she said.
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