New Zealand grapples with new COVID-19 outbreak, extends lockdown

ANKARA

New Zealand on Friday extended its nationwide lockdown for the next four days as the country battles a new COVID-19 outbreak, state-run media said.

The decision came after the country reported 70 new cases in the past 24 hours.

Speaking to reporters after a Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the country will ease its level 4 restrictions starting next Tuesday, Radio New Zealand reported.

But the country's major city Auckland, the epicenter of the latest outbreak, will likely remain under level 4 restrictions.

"We will need to be confident we've stamped it out and have cases contained and isolated," state-run media quoted Ardern as saying.

"We know COVID-19 is not going away quickly, but our strategy can evolve," she added.

During the past 24 hours, New Zealand reported 70 new infections, bringing the total cases to 347, according to the Health Ministry. Over 333 cases were registered in Auckland and 14 in Wellington.

New Zealand confirmed the first case of the Delta variant in a traveler who arrived in the country from the Australian state of New South Wales on Aug. 17.

Authorities put the entire country on Level 4 lockdown after the first locally transmitted COVID-19 case was reported in February.

Under Level 4 restrictions, everyone must stay home and businesses are closed except for essential services such as supermarkets and pharmacies.

Last September, New Zealand – widely praised for its response to the pandemic – lifted all restrictions across the nation, and there were no new cases for seven months.

Since the outbreak began locally in 2020, New Zealand has reported 3,297 COVID-19 cases and 26 deaths in a population of about 5 million.

To protect people from the deadly virus, so far over 2 million people have gotten their first vaccine dose, while over 1.1 million have been fully vaccinated, according to Health Ministry data.

* Writing by Islamuddin Sajid