Strict 'circuit-breaker' lockdown may be needed for Auckland - Shaun Hendy

October 10, 2021

Shaun Hendy spoke to 1News following Sunday's spike in case numbers.

Auckland may need a “circuit-breaker” lockdown as Covid-19 case numbers continue to grow, a leading modeller says. 

University of Auckland’s Shaun Hendy said Sunday’s 60 new cases - 56 of which were in Auckland - confirmed things were trending upwards. 

It comes one day before Cabinet assess Auckland’s alert level. 

“That’s obviously a concern for where Auckland can go next,” Hendy said. 

“The Government needs to keep that option [of re-tightening restrictions] on the table. 

“I think they need to start planning for the possibility that we’ll need a circuit-breaker. We certainly can’t see numbers increase much more than we’ve got at the moment.”

He said once New Zealand began detecting about 100 new cases a day, the country could start seeing about 10 of those people go to hospital.

“That will very quickly saturate the capacity that we’ve got in Auckland to deal with Covid cases.” 

It was also important that the cluster in Waikato be “shut down” quickly, Hendy said.

While there was an active and growing outbreak in Auckland, New Zealand can expect cases to travel beyond the city’s border from time to time, he said. 


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