Coronavirus: New Zealand prepares for lockdown as PM flags four weeks of self-isolation
- ‘If community transmission takes off in New Zealand, the number of cases will double every five days,’ PM Jacinda Ardern says
- Schools, offices and all non-essential services will be shut. New Zealand has 102 confirmed coronavirus cases but no casualties
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said these decisions will place the most significant restriction on New Zealanders’ movements in modern history, but it was needed to save lives and slow the virus.
“We are all now preparing to go into self-isolation as a nation,” Ardern said during a news conference.
The number of coronavirus cases in New Zealand shot up to 102, more than double since Friday, as the country reported 36 new infections. New Zealand has had no deaths.
“If community transmission takes off in New Zealand, the number of cases will double every five days. If that happens unchecked, our health system will be inundated, and thousands of New Zealanders will die,” she said.
“The worst-case scenario is simply intolerable. It would represent the greatest loss of New Zealand lives in our history and I will not take that chance.”
She said a nationwide lockdown was “a simple but highly effective way to constrain the virus that gives it no place to go and will give our healthcare system a fighting chance”.