New Zealand went into a three-day nationwide lockdown on Tuesday after recording its first community case of the highly contagious Delta variant of the COVID-19 after six months. On Wednesday, authorities confirmed another nine positive patients, all linked to the first case.
According to authorities, New Zealand will be under level four lockdown until Friday. Apart from essential services such as supermarkets and pharmacies, citizens have been asked to stay at home, and businesses will be closed. In addition, masks have been made mandatory in public spaces, including public transport, supermarkets, and pharmacies, for people above 12. Auckland and Coromandel region will be under lockdown for a week.
Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that more than 142 countries have confirmed the presence of this particular variant. However, it is the first time New Zealand has announced the presence of the Delta variant. The authorities are investigating the source of the virus, as the country’s borders have been shut for almost all foreigners since last year and incoming foreign travellers had to undergo mandatory state-run quarantine.
Concerning this, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, “New Zealand’s first community COVID-19 case in six months is the Delta variant, and genome sequencing shows that it’s linked to the growing outbreak in neighbouring Australia.” Ardern added, “Our case has originated in Australia. And now the job we have is to work through how and when it got here.”
Meanwhile, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield warned that the country could record more cases between 50 to 120 as predicted by the model that considered the Delta variant. Bloomfield added, “Our job now is to find any and every case.” Similarly, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed the growing cluster of coronavirus and said that more cases are expected to emerge overnight.
Overall, New Zealand has confirmed fewer than 3,000 COVID-19 cases and 26 deaths.
Despite its success at avoiding an uncontrollable outbreak, the government has not gone without criticism. Reacting to the lockdown announcement, Judith Collins, the leader of New Zealand’s opposition party, blamed the government for low vaccination rates, which has left the population vulnerable. She said there was no option but to go into level four lockdown in light of the vaccination challenges.
Like Australia, New Zealand has been slow to vaccinate its population, and as per the data collated by CNN, less than 20% of the population is fully vaccinated in the country. According to WHO, New Zealand has the lowest vaccination rate among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. However, authorities stated that the vaccine rollout would be resumed from Thursday after a momentary pause.