With another record amount of COVID-19 cases identified, the New Zealand government has been granted extraordinary operating powers to implement a nationwide lockdown.<\/p>\n
A State of National Emergency was declared by Civil Defence Minister Peeni Henare on Wednesday, following Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern\u2019s issuing of an Epidemic Notice on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Those two measures have granted the government powers unseen in New Zealand since the 1951 Waterfront Dispute, a five-month industrial barney involving tens of thousands of workers.<\/p>\n
The government has commandeered the defence force to assist police to uphold public safety and enforce the lockdown, which begins at midnight on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Police and civil defence personnel have been afforded a range of sweeping powers to close roads, take control of buildings and public spaces, and regulate and control the flow of food, fuel and essential supplies.<\/p>\n
Ms Ardern said the pandemic required \u201ca significant and coordinated response by and across central and local government\u201d and for each citizen to minimise their contact by self-isolating.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not take this moment in our history lightly nor the powers that come with it,\u201d Ms Ardern said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut every decision that we are taking with the best interests of New Zealanders\u2019 public health in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike so many other gravely inundated countries, we have a window of opportunity to stay home, break the chain of transmission, and save lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must take this period of self-isolation deadly seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
The consolidation of power comes with the blessing of the opposition, and with support from Kiwi citizens eager to see the containment of the spiralling pandemic.<\/p>\n
A fresh 50 cases in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning has the country\u2019s overall tally at 205.<\/p>\n
As of Wednesday night, New Zealanders will largely be confined to their own homes in a lockdown far more severe than Australian restrictions.<\/p>\n
Director of Civil Defence Emergency Management Sarah Stuart-Black said Kiwis pull through by calling on memories of varied tragedies and emergencies over the next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver recent years \u2026 we\u2019ve had a range of emergencies where New Zealanders have listened to that advice and taken the right action to take themselves and their families safe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen it in earthquakes and tsunami risk and fires and the mosque shootings. This is another challenge for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that people have heard the messages and understand how horrendous this could get.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of New Zealand\u2019s 205 cases to date, just six require hospital treatment and none are in intensive care.<\/p>\n
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said numbers would continue to rise as households began to mandatorily self-isolate under tough new government restrictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With another record amount of COVID-19 cases identified, the New Zealand government has been granted extraordinary operating powers to implement a nationwide lockdown. A State of National Emergency was declared by Civil Defence Minister Peeni Henare on Wednesday, following Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern\u2019s issuing of an Epidemic Notice on Tuesday. Those two measures have granted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-world"],"views":107,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2729,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2726\/revisions\/2729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldinsight.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}