A rumour New Zealand will enter lockdown on January 15 has been slammed as false by the All-of-Government COVID-19 Response Group after the untrue claims circulated on social media.
The rumours appeared to start spreading at the beginning of January. On Twitter, one person claimed the "NZ script" of what will happen is that the "mutant strain", presumably meaning the new United Kingdom and South Africa variant, will arrive on Aotearoa's shores and there will "be a quarantine breach".
"NZ expected to be back in full lockdown January 15," they added.
Another person claimed New Zealand was "still on track" for the supposed January 15 lockdown after a COVID-19 scare at the Hamilton District Court. A border worker showing symptoms of the virus visited the court and it was put into lockdown for a brief time.
But these rumours are untrue, the COVID-19 Response Group says, and a shift in alert levels to trigger a lockdown "is not something the Government would ever plan weeks in advance".
"An alert level change is a careful decision made by a group of ministers or Cabinet, after advice from senior officials including the Director-General of Health, in the event of community transmission," they said.
There is currently no community transmission of COVID-19 in New Zealand, according to the latest update from the Ministry of Health on Monday, and all 77 active cases were found in returning passengers and these people are now in quarantine facilities.
"Some of the considerations made when providing the advice are: whether the case is isolated, the risk of transmission based on their movement, case history, symptom onset and severity and the source of infection. The restrictions under whichever alert level is decided are then determined by the Minister of Health."
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In a Facebook post, a second person responded to the false rumours and said these plans were supposedly true because they've "already been leaked".
But an All-of-Government COVID-19 response spokesperson slammed these rumours because a shift in alert levels "is not something the Government would ever plan weeks in advance".
"An alert level change is a careful decision made by a group of ministers or Cabinet, after advice from senior officials including the Director-General of Health, in the event of community transmission," she told Newshub.
There are currently four active community cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand. Friday was the last day a new community case was announced.
"Some of the considerations made when providing the advice are: whether the case is isolated, the risk of transmission based on their movement, case history, symptom onset and severity and the source of infection."
The restrictions under whichever alert level is decided are then determined by the Minister of Health, they added.
"We encourage New Zealanders to only take their information from official sources."
It isn't the first time false rumours about COVID-19 have circulated social media.
After the Auckland outbreak of community transmission in August, a man took to Reddit to allege COVID-19's reemergence was due to a young woman infiltrating a managed isolation facility to visit her deportee boyfriend.
MBIE debunked the mistruths.
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At the time, it forced Minister of Health Chris Hipkins to ask New Zealanders to take information they see on social media with a grain of salt and to treat it as a rumour if it hasn't come from an official source.
"That is [treating it as] unverified and therefore something that cannot be relied upon to be true or accurate," he said in August.
He said Kiwis should get their information from official sources, such as the daily briefings or official social media pages.
"Behind the scenes from early on every morning, there are dozens of dedicated people tracking down, cross-referencing and checking every bit of information in preparation for these media conferences. That means the information here is verified.
"Please be responsible and sensible about what you choose to share on Facebook. If it's not verified, please don't share it."
