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Deputy PM defends Auckland lockdown: 'We can't rewrite history'

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 8 Mar 2021, 8:43PM
(Photo / NZ Herald)
(Photo / NZ Herald)

Deputy PM defends Auckland lockdown: 'We can't rewrite history'

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Mon, 8 Mar 2021, 8:43PM

The Deputy Prime Minister says there is no regret over putting Auckland into lockdown. 

Auckland is currently in Level 2 after a week in Level 3 due to cases in the community.

There were no new community cases recorded after the first case was discovered. 

Grant Robertson told Heather du Plessis-Allan that the zero cases makes it look like a lockdown was unnecessary, but the Government was acting on several areas of concern when the move was made. 

"At the time we went down into lockdown, we didn't know how this person had been infected."

Robertson says they also had to deal with the fact the person has been in the community for seven days with lots of points of exposure. 

He says that knowing how the infection had happened would have been better, but that's not how trhe situation unfolded. 

"We can't rewrite history that way." 

The alternative would have been waiting and then being criticised if there were new cases, Robertson says.

He says that moving quickly has meant New Zealand has spent far less time in lockdown compared to other countries. 

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