- New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced a nationwide lockdown after the country confirmed one coronavirus case.
- The first locally transmitted Covid-19 case in the community since February.
As per CNN news source written by Julia Hollingsworth and Chandler Thornton states that New Zealand announces it’s locking down the entire country over one Covid case.
Contagious Delta variant
Ardern told a press conference Tuesday authorities were assuming it was the contagious Delta variant, although genome sequencing is still underway.
An unvaccinated 58-year-old man in the country’s largest city Auckland tested positive for the virus. The man had traveled to other parts of the country, and had no obvious link to the border, Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said Tuesday.
Strictest level lockdown level
Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula — an area of the country’s North Island where the patient traveled — are likely to be under a level four lockdown for a week.
“We are one of the last countries in the world to have the Delta variant in our community,” Ardern said. “We’re in the position to learn from experience overseas, and what actions work, and what actions don’t work.”
“Delta has been called a gamechanger — and it is. It means we need to again go hard and early to stop the spread. We have seen what can happen elsewhere if we fail to get on top of it. We only get one chance.”
New Zealand has been praised for its handling of the virus, which saw it close borders to almost all foreign nationals early, and impose strict state-run quarantines on incoming travelers.
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Source: CNN
