Auckland to enter lockdown after just one new case of Covid found

A man in his early 20s failed to self-isolate after developing symptoms and hit the gym after his test on Friday, according to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

New Zealand’s largest city will be plunged into a week-long lockdown following the detection of a single local Covid case in a man in his early 20s.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern suggested the lockdown decision was ‘based on’ the man’s failure to self-isolate, including a ‘frustrating’ decision to go to the gym after his test on Friday.

Some 1.7 million Aucklanders will be banned from leaving home from Sunday except for essential shopping and work, and schools and non-essential shops must close.

It follows a three-day lockdown earlier this month which Ms Ardern similarly blamed on a handful of high-school students who failed to quarantine.

Health officials are currently identifying the variant but could not immediately confirm how the young man got infected.

He was described as the older brother of a pupil at Papatoetoe High School, the centre of a mini-outbreak earlier this month.

A three-day lockdown lockdown was announced after a family of three linked to the school tested positive, after which three other cases were identified in pupils.

But the sibling of the young man tested negative for coronavirus several times, Ms Ardern said, meaning there is ‘no current known link for the case’ discovered this week.

She told a press conference: ‘If we cannot immediately link a case person to person, what we call it an epidemiological link, that is a significant issue, and one we need to act on.’

Officials also believe the man may have been infectious since Sunday, during which time he visited several other public venues.

Ms Ardern said of the earlier high-school outbreak: ‘People who should have been in isolation, weren’t.

‘Unfortunately, we have still had breaches of requirements in this case.’

The rippling effect of the man’s behaviour echoes a state-wide lockdown in South Australia in November which hinged on a pizza worker’s decision to lie to contact tracers.

Some 1.8 million people who had been enjoying near-normalcy had to endure days of lockdown as it caused officials to overestimate the risk of a new outbreak.

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