New Zealand has extended a lockdown imposed on it’s largest city, Auckland. What was supposed to have been a 3-day lockdown has now been extended by at least 12 days, as authorities struggle with a growing new coronavirus outbreak.

Prime Minister Jacinda Arden said, “Cabinet has agreed to maintain our current settings for an additional 12 days, bringing us to a full two weeks in total.”

Al Arabiyya reports that four people tested positive in Auckland on Tuesday. These were the first local transmission cases in the country in 102 days. Since then, New Zealand has detected a cluster of 30 virus cases. 1.5 million residents of the city have been asked to stay home.

Of even more concern to authorities is the fact that two of the infection cases had been found in Tokoroa, a town more than 200 kilometres away from Auckland.

Authorities cannot fathom how the situation has come about, with the New Zealand prime minister saying that genetic testing showed no link between the new outbreak and quarantined arrivals from overseas, nor from the country’s first wave of cases.

Umm Muhammed Umar