Jacinda Ardern will force domestic Covid contacts to isolate for 24 days in new action as New Zealand braces for Omicron outbreak
- With the new rule, domestic contacts will remain in quarantine for about a month.
- Critics warn it would prevent many people from getting tested to avoid isolation
- This comes as the nation records 84 cases on Saturday, of which 41 are travellers.
- New Zealand Still Aims To Be Covid Zero But Airport Staff Now Has Omicron
New Zealand Will isolate domestic contacts of COVID cases for 24 days under strict new rules brought in to deal with the impending omicron the outbreak.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Tough measures have been taken in the country’s fight to remain COVID zero despite the threat of a highly contagious mutant strain.
But critics say the long quarantine period is ‘incurable’ and would prompt people to avoid testing.
Under the new interim rules, anyone infected with Kovid will now have to isolate for 14 days, which is more than 10 days.
Then the household contacts must remain in quarantine for the next 10 days, extending the alone time to three-and-a-half weeks.
New Zealand will isolate domestic contacts of COVID cases for 24 days under strict new rules brought in to deal with the impending Omicron outbreak (pictured, NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern)
The extension of isolation comes as New Zealand reported 84 new Covid cases on Saturday, with 43 caught in the community and 41 others at the border.
This includes an Auckland airport employee who tested positive for the Omicron strain, with the number of cases rising to 1,500 or more a day if the mutant strain spreads across the country.
The NZ health ministry said the changes were made after new scientific data published in Japan showed that the highly infectious strain has a longer incubation period than previous variants, in which victims also shed the virus for longer.
Anyone infected with COVID now needs to isolate for 14 days and household contacts must then remain in quarantine for 10 days (pictured, drive in vaccination at Auckland airport)
But Ardern’s critics warned that the extreme policy is “incurable” and could lead to more Covid cases with greater numbers refusing to test to avoid a longer quarantine period.
‘The effect is that if you test positive, members of your household may have to isolate for 24 days,’ David Seymour, the leader of the ACT’s political party, told NZ material,
‘Those who cannot afford it will have a strong incentive not to test, defeating the purpose of the policy.
‘If the advice is taken seriously, it will paralyze health workers and supply chains in general.’
Critics have warned that the extreme policy is ‘incurable’ and could lead to a high number of COVID cases refusing tests to avoid long quarantine periods (pictured at a COVID vaccination clinic in Auckland, anti-vaxxer protesters).
However, experts say that the government is taking a U-turn on the decision to reduce the time of isolation made last November.
Epidemiologist Michael Baker said, ‘This is nothing new – we have gone back to the period of time that preceded that change a few months ago.
‘Our handling of the virus is still to keep Omicron out and we have to put in place strict rules to do that.
‘But everything is about to change when there is an almost inevitable outbreak here.’
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