AUCKLAND, Aug 12, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – New Zealand’s looming general election
could be delayed, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warned Wednesday, as the
shock re-emergence of the coronavirus sent the country’s largest city into
lockdown and forced nursing homes nationwide to shut their doors.
Ardern said authorities were scrambling to trace anyone who had been in
contact with four Auckland residents whose positive tests on Tuesday ended
the country’s envied run of 102 days without community transmission.
A three-day stay-at-home order for Auckland — a city of 1.5 million people
— went into force at lunchtime on Wednesday, ending weeks of near normality,
when thousands had flocked to restaurants and filled rugby stadiums.
Panic buying returned to supermarkets, huge queues formed at COVID-19
testing stations and face-masked police manned roadblocks on major roads to
enforce the new measures.
Ardern warned the September 19 election may be have to be delayed if the
outbreak could not be contained.
“We’re seeking advice from the Electoral Commission, just so that we make
sure we have all options open to us,” she said. “No decisions yet, as you can
imagine, have been made.”
New Zealand’s parliament had been due to be dissolved Wednesday, to allow
the election to go ahead.
In a statement, the legislature said that step “will no longer be held
today” but could be done any time before 13 October 2020, potentially pushing
the election out by months.
Health officials were also locking down aged care homes across the country
because they could act as transmission hotspots.
“I realise how incredibly difficult this will be for those who have loved
ones in these facilities, but it’s the strongest way we can protect and look
after them,” Ardern said.
Director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield acknowledged the heartbreak of
many Kiwis as they come to terms with the return of a virus many thought had
been defeated.
“I know the virus re-remerging in our community has caused alarm and the
unknown is scary,” he said. “(But) we’ve been here before, we can get through
it if we work together.”
– Election ‘very difficult’ –
New Zealand had been held up by the World Health Organization as an example
of how to contain the disease after recording only 22 deaths in a population
of five million, and halting community transmission for more than three
months.
Ardern described the new cases as “unsettling” but said all efforts were
being made to retrace the steps of the Auckland family of four who contracted
it from an unknown source.
Her centre-left Labour Party has been riding high in opinion polls, largely
on the back of its success containing the virus through a strict seven-week
lockdown earlier this year.
With campaigning temporarily halted by the latest virus scare, the
conservative National Party said it was open to a delay if circumstances
warranted.
“It’s going to be very difficult to have an election in mid-September when
we are now mid-August. It is very little time,” National leader Judith
Collins told TV3.
The initial lockdown is only for three days but University of Otago
epidemiologist Amanda Kvalsvig said it could last much longer if the source
of the infection was not found swiftly.
“The aim is to return to alert level one (New Zealand’s lowest) and regain
elimination status — but that won’t happen overnight,” she said.
“Even after we stop seeing new cases it’ll take time and extensive testing
to be sure the virus is once more under control.”
The outbreak has already eroded some of the everyday freedoms New
Zealanders had enjoyed, with Ardern urging Aucklanders to wear masks and
restricting gatherings in the city to a maximum of 10 people.
The final match of Super Rugby Aotearoa — which had been set to take place
in front of a sold-out 43,000 crowd at Eden Park on Sunday — is also in
doubt.
The Auckland Blues said its players had been sent home to await advice on
whether they can host the weekend’s blockbuster match against newly-crowned
champions, the Canterbury Crusaders.