Coronavirus: New Zealand’s Delta outbreak spreads; Singapore vows clearer pandemic messaging
- PM Jacinda Ardern put additional regions into a snap lockdown, while Air New Zealand imposed a vaccination requirement for international travellers
- Elsewhere, Australia reported more than 1,900 Covid-19 infections on Sunday, as it struggles to quell Delta outbreaks in its two most populous states
There were 32 new coronavirus cases on Sunday in Auckland, which has been in lockdown since mid-August, and two cases in the Waikato region, some 147km (91 miles) south of Auckland. Ardern said parts of the region will go into a five-day lockdown.
She added that the government will decide on Monday whether Auckland’s 1.7 million residents will remain sealed off from the rest of New Zealand.
Ardern enforced what was meant to be a “short and sharp” nationwide lockdown in mid-August in response to the Auckland outbreak, which now stands at 1,328 cases. But while the rest of the country has largely returned to normal life, the North Island city has remained in lockdown.
“We are doing everything that we can to keep cases confined to Auckland, and managing them there,” Ardern said.
While New Zealand was among just a handful of countries to bring Covid-19 cases down to zero last year and largely stayed virus-free until the latest outbreak in August, difficulties in quashing the Delta variant have put Ardern’s elimination strategy in question.