After 102 days with no reported community transmission, a family of four in South Auckland, New Zealand tested positive for COVID-19 on 11 August.
The family did not have any known link to overseas travel and was not in managed isolation.
And why is that surprising? To know that, we have to delve into recent history.
Past Successes
Previously, New Zealand is one of the countries in the entire world which managed to come the closest to stamping out Covid-19 within their country.
They employed one of the most effective counter Covid-19 strategies decisively and went into a lockdown relatively early.
On 23 March, the total number of infections in New Zealand was 102.
That day, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered the country to move to Alert Level 3 immediately, (something like Singapore’s Phase 1).
48 hours later, the country was on lockdown at Alert Level 4.
Citizens received an emergency text message from the government with all the measures of the lockdown clearly laid out.
If you want a good model of text message to announce a lock-down New Zealand's is pretty good. There's also arguments that short is better. Here are the Australian and New Zealand messages compared pic.twitter.com/RgIj6AHtPO
— Ryan Heath (@PoliticoRyan) April 7, 2020
“We have a window of opportunity to stay home, break the chain of transmission, and save lives,” says Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. “It’s that simple.”
During the month-long lockdown and the subsequent transition to Alert Level 3, New Zealand managed to reach a stage of no new infections.
Eventually, on 8 June, the last remaining COVID-19 patient recovered. The number of active COVID-19 cases in the country to zero, an amazing feat.
Imported Cases
Following the good news, New Zealand moved to Alert Level 1, where restrictions are largely lifted though border control stayed.
However, on 16 June, two new imported cases from the UK were reported.
As the number of flights to New Zealand increased, so did the number of active cases, though the situation was contained.
There were no community cases still, and all the cases were under managed isolation.
On 12 June, the number of active cases was 25, and the numbers stayed low all the way till August when the community cases restarted.
New Waves in the Community
We arrive back at the present, where the family in Auckland tested positive.
At noon of 12 August, Auckland was moved to Alert Level 3 until Friday, 14 August, while the rest of the country moved to Alert Level 2.
However, the number of new community transmissions kept climbing, with most cases linked to the Auckland cluster. On 13 August, the total number of cases is 36.
Today, 14 August, 13 more cases of COVID-19 were reported, bringing the total count to 49.
The cases have spread beyond Auckland, a major set back.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that Auckland and the rest of the country will remain at their current levels of restriction for 12 more days.
Only time will tell if this is sufficient.
Possible Causes
So how was there a resurgent in the first place?
The origin of the outbreak is still under investigation but it could have come from Britain or Australia based on the genome testing of the strain of COVID-19 contracted by the Auckland family.
They are also considering the possibility that the virus was imported on frozen food packages.
Although the likelihood of such a transmission is said to be low, studies have also shown that the coronavirus can survive for up to 3 days on plastic.
As reported by The Straits Times, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said that he suspected the cause of the outbreak came from quarantine, and that confirmation should come soon.
“I think there’s been a breach inside our quarantine system, and I think, when that comes out very shortly, in a matter of maybe less than a day, we’ll find out that was the case,” Mr Peters told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The race in New Zealand now is to find patient zero of the recent outbreak so that the chains of transmission can be severed.
Let’s all hope New Zealand, the country which Singapore has clearly taken as a role model, manages to pull through this relatively unscathed.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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