Health Director-General Dr Ashley Bloomfield made the announcements in a press conference yesterday (August 12th). As of today, New Zealand has 36 active cases* of alleged coronavirus infection. That has not prevented the government from locking down Auckland, the countries largest city.

Under Section 70 of the Health Act, the NZ government has the power to compel people into quarantine against their will. According to a report from stuff.co.nz quarantine centres have – among other things – "more stringent security" than isolation hotels.

According to Dr Broomfield the new quarantine rules:

Will apply to all test-positive cases and also family members who may be at risk, where appropriate.

A reminder that the PCR tests are incredibly unreliable and can return very large numbers of false-positive results.