New Zealand enters nationwide lockdown over single COVID-19 case

“Don’t talk to your neighbors. Please, keep to your bubbles” were the frenzied words given during a press conference by New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern while announcing the country will be under the strictest level of lockdown for the next three days starting at 11:59 p.m. local time.

Yet it wasn’t overrun hospitals or a surge of cases in the elderly care homes that activated the lockdowns – it was one person. A 58-year-old man in Auckland, New Zealand tested positive for the virus. Yet still unknown on Tuesday, Ardern said authorities are assuming it’s the Delta variant, but genome sequencing is ongoing

Public health professionals have criticized the country’s ‘Zero-Covid’ strategy grabbing headlines again for its revolving lockdowns.

New Zealand’s new restrictions are requiring people to stay in their homes unless except for food, medicine, to get a COVID-19 test, or exercise outside. Bars, restaurants, gyms, playgrounds and schools will all be required to closed. In addition, Ardern’s government is asking New Zealanders to only make physical contact with the people they live with.

In an August 4th WSJ Opinion piece titled Eradication of Covid Is a Dangerous and Expensive Fantasy, Jay Bhattacharya and Donald J. Boudreaux write:

Much of the pathology underlying Covid policy arises from the fantasy that it is possible to eradicate the virus. Capitalizing on pandemic panic, governments and compliant media have used the lure of zero-Covid to induce obedience to harsh and arbitrary lockdown policies and associated violations of civil liberties.

Among all countries, New Zealand, Australia and especially China have most zealously embraced zero-Covid. China’s initial lockdown in Wuhan was the most tyrannical. It infamously locked people into their homes, forced patients to take untested medications, and imposed 40-day quarantines at gunpoint.

READ THE FULL STORY ABOUT NEW ZEALAND’S NEW LOCKDOWN HERE:
https://nbc-2.com/news/national-world/2021/08/17/new-zealand-enters-nationwide-lockdown-over-single-covid-19-case/