Only one person showed up to protest Auckland’s lockdown New Zealand, on Friday (27) after an internet call. Police persuaded the man to go home and abide by government rules after the country recorded its first local cases of COVID-19 in six months.
According to New Zealand’s Newshub, police saw the call to protest on the Instagram account, which called on people to go to Queen Street, claiming “that’s more than enough”.
However, the profile owners stated that they were not the authors and were only passing the text, without knowing the initial source.
The publication accused the country’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, of “destroying the economy” and “destroying jobs,” even though New Zealand saw a 4 percentage point drop in its unemployment rate in the past four months and recovered from recent lockdowns with higher-than-expected results, according to Newshub.
Police were aware of discussions on social media about an anti-lockdown demonstration on Queen Street in Auckland this afternoon. Police were in the area and spoke to a person who arrived with the intention of attending the protest. The individual was encouraged to comply with the Level 4 alert restrictions and chose to leave,” a statement from the local police said.
Also Friday, Ardern announced an August 31 extension of the nationwide lockdown. The goal is to try to stop a new increase in the states of the delta variable.
Ardern announced that only 70 new cases were registered on Friday linked to the initial focus of Auckland, bringing the number of infections to 347. According to the prime minister, the lockdown has already begun to show the first results. He declared, “We are witnessing the beginning of the stagnation of issues (…) Our task is to continue this hard effort.”
Starting next week, the government expects a slight easing of measures across the country, with the exception of the city of Auckland and the neighboring Northland region, which are focused on nearly all cases. These sites must remain confined for at least two additional weeks.
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