Coronavirus: New Zealand had been largely virus-free for months, barring a small number of cases in February, until an outbreak of the Delta variant.
Wellington:
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday extended a lockdown in Auckland by two weeks, while officials reported the country’s first death linked to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
New Zealand had been largely virus-free for months, barring a small number of cases in February, until an outbreak of the Delta variant imported from Australia prompted Ardern to order a snap nationwide lockdown on Aug. 17.
Infections in the outbreak have reached 562 but the number of daily new cases dropped to 53 on Monday, the lowest over the past five days.
“I know we all feel encouraged that our number is lower than what we’ve seen in the last few days and I know we’re all willing for that trend to remain,” Ardern said at a news conference. “The job is not yet done and we do need to keep going.”
Around 1.7 million Aucklanders will remain in strict level 4 lockdown for another two weeks, while restrictions for the remainder of the country will be eased slightly to a level 3.
Ardern’s tough and swift lockdowns, along with closing the international border from March 2020, were credited with reining in COVID-19 in the country.
However, the government now faces questions over a delayed vaccine rollout, as well as rising costs in a country heavily reliant on an immigrant workforce.
Around 21% of the population of 5.1 million people have been fully vaccinated, the slowest pace among the wealthy nations of the OECD grouping.