Coronavirus: Christchurch shuts down all community facilities

Christchurch has shut down all of its community facilities - with immediate effect.

Christchurch has this afternoon closed all of its community facilities, with immediate effect, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to shut down the country.

The city council said that as of 4pm today, there will be no public access to libraries, sport and recreation centres, pools, community centres, service centres, the Christchurch Art Gallery and the Botanic Gardens visitors' centre until further notice.

Canterbury Museum and Quake City, its special exhibition telling stories of the Canterbury earthquakes, have also closed to visitors until further notice.

Mary Richardson, who is leading Christchurch City Council's Covid-19 Incident Management Team, says the move comes in support of the Government's efforts to fight coronavirus.

"There is no sign of community transmission in Christchurch and we still only have two confirmed cases, both of which relate to overseas travel," Richardson said.

"However, other towns and cities are starting to see more cases so we want to move early to limit the spread of the virus in our communities by closing facilities where people gather."

Council officials have been in daily contact with the Medical Officer of Health about how they can support efforts to fight Covid-19.

Initial advice said they should keep facilities open as long as possible because they help create a sense of normalcy in people's lives.

"On Friday, we announced we were keeping facilities open but operating them at reduced capacity so that we could ensure users could stay at a safe distance from each other," Richardson said.

"In light of the Prime Minister's address to the nation and the increase in Covid-19 cases being reported around the country, we have again consulted with the Medical Officer of Health and have decided this is the right time to close our facilities.

"This is not a decision we have taken lightly but it is a sensible precaution to take in this fast-evolving pandemic.''

New Zealand now has 52 confirmed cases of Covid-19, including the two cases which have no link to overseas travel.

"At this point, we cannot rule out a risk of community transmission in these [two] cases," Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a press conference this morning.

"We always knew that cases not linked to travel could happen and we are prepared for that," he said.

A further 13 positive tests were confirmed in the past 24 hours, the biggest jump in cases in a single day so far.

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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is asking all people over 70 or with compromised immune systems to stay at home and all non-essential domestic travel to be curtailed.

And she had a stern message for New Zealanders who are not taking the threat of Covid-19 seriously, saying they should think about their friends and family and consider that their blithe approach could imperil people's lives.

In her first ever address to the nation today, she also introduced a four-tier alert system based on the spread of the virus. New Zealand is currently at level two.

Level two means the disease is contained but the risks are growing, and contact with other people should be reduced through cancelled events, increased border measures, and people working from home.