Jacinda Ardern Says Australia Is The Reason For Locking NZ Down Over One Covid-19 Case

Jacinda Ardern has given a one-worded reason why she locked down the whole of New Zealand after one case of coronavirus.

The single positive result was announced on Tuesday (August 17) and the Prime Minister wasted no time in shutting down the country.

While other countries have tried to limit the spread of Covid-19 by introducing local lockdown restrictions, Ms Ardern thought it was necessary to put the whole country in a Stage 4 lockdown.

When asked by a journalist for the reason behind the harsh decision, she didn't mince her words.

"Australia," she said. "We've seen the dire consequences of taking too long to act in other countries, not least our neighbours.

"We have seen what can happen elsewhere if we fail to get on top of it. We only get one chance."

The case has been confirmed to be the Delta variant and the cluster has now grown to 10 cases since Tuesday's announcement.

Ms Ardern says the outbreak that has been seen in New South Wales and other states is a reminder that fast and harsh measures can help prevent the spread of the pandemic.

"Our ability to narrow down that this is a case that is linked to New South Wales outbreak, gives us a lot of leads to chase down as quickly as we can," she said.

NSW yesterday (August 18) recorded a whopping 633 new cases of the virus, which is a record for this outbreak.

It was a marked increase from previous figures, with the old record being in the high 400s, which illustrates how lockdown measures and stay-at-home orders haven't help slow down the outbreak.

Many are wondering why they've been confined to their homes for weeks if it's doing nothing to stop case numbers climbing.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian yesterday rejected the idea that their system isn't working.

"We have the right settings in place. But unfortunately too many people continue to do the wrong thing," she said. "We know the settings we have in place are some of the harshest that Australia has ever seen.

"Unfortunately it only takes a small number of people to do the wrong thing, to cause this amount of spread."

Across the Tasman, Jacinda Ardern said doesn't want that for her people.

She told the country: '"Because of some of the decisions of those covered by those lockdowns, some whom may not have necessarily followed the rules , it has essentially extended the period of time that they're there.

"New Zealand hasn't had that same experience. For those periods we've had lockdowns, by and large, there's been really good compliance.

"So I just say to to Kiwis: do what you've done before. We want to be short and sharp rather than light and long.

"We've seen what happened in Sydney. We don't want that experience here."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: New Zealand, Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie