COVID-19: New Zealand's Decisive Policy Successfully Empties Public Places

Photo illustration in Auckland City (Edvinas Bruzas / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - One of the options widely used by countries in the world to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is closing access or lockdowns. This is also practiced in New Zealand. They imposed a lockdown across the region for a whole month. As a result, New Zealand is now enveloped in extraordinary silence.

Thursday, March 26, the New Zealand government began a lockdown to contain COVID-19. The policy was also accompanied by an appeal for all residents to stay at home and isolate themselves. If you do not comply, there will be large fines and imprisonment that will be the consequences.

As reported by Reuters, Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern said most things went according to plan. Roads, offices, shopping centers, train stations, the streets of downtown Auckland and Wellington look lonely and quiet in the morning because they have closed and temporarily stopped operating.

"The streets are basically empty. That's a great achievement and I want to thank New Zealanders for that," Ardern said.

Apart from the places above, the government has also closed schools, restaurants and places of worship. However, those who are at the forefront of the COVID-19 fight are allowed to move.

Ardern conveyed a solid and firm appeal on this matter. Solid and firm appeal in cigarette packs. "Breaking the rules can kill someone close to you," said Ardern.

All this was done because the number of positive cases of COVID-19 rose to 79 on Thursday. This means that the number of people positive for COVID-19 has increased to 283 people in the country.

Basically, almost all New Zealanders adhere to the lockdown policy. However, there are also some of them who continue to ignore this policy. Therefore, those who do not obey can face serious consequences, including imprisonment of up to six months.

"There are people hanging around, breaking these rules, claiming they have no knowledge of this. For those people, if they are seen hanging around again, there will be consequences for that action," said New Zealand Police Chief Mike Bush.