‘Zero Covid’ enclave New Zealand extends it lockdown as cases KEEP rising

New Zealand has extended its national Covid-19 lockdown as case numbers continued to rise and a Delta variant outbreak spread from Auckland to the capital Wellington.

The number of cases rose to 31 today, three days after the country – which has the second lowest vaccination rates in the developed world – had its first case in the community in six months.

Ardern, who is trying to sustain a ‘Zero Covid’ strategy through strict border controls and lockdowns, initially announced the national shutdown would last three days but on Friday had to succumb to the inevitable and extend it to at least a week. 

Vast swathes of Australia are also under ‘Zero Covid’ lockdowns and residents of Sydney were told they will have to stay home until at least October under strict lockdown rules that will not be lifted until at least 70 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated. 

When it hits that vaccination target, the restrictions will be lifted under a ‘freedom roadmap’ similar to the one implemented in the UK months ago.  

New Zealand initially brought in its lockdown over one case but Ardern said that officials were still trying to assess the scale of the outbreak, which emerged in Auckland this week and has now spread to Wellington. 

‘We just don’t quite know the full scale of this Delta outbreak. All in all, this tells us we need to continue to be cautious,’ she said.

Ardern said all the cases, including those in Wellington, were linked, giving less cause for concern.

‘That’s important, as it means we’re starting to build a picture of the edges of this cluster,’ she said. ‘At this stage, we don’t have random cases popping up.’

New Zealand‘s snap lockdown came into effect at 11.59pm Tuesday after a single mystery Covid case was found in Auckland, the nation’s first locally-acquired case since February. 

It was sparked by a 58-year-old Auckland man, who is unvaccinated, after he tested positive on Tuesday and is believed to have been infectious for the last five days. 

He had travelled with his wife to Coromandel — which is on the east of the North Island — at the weekend.

The man is being assumed to be infected with the highly contagious Indian Delta strain until genome testing results come back on Wednesday, although it remains unclear how the virus jumped quarantine containment into the community. 

Ms Ardern on Tuesday urged the country to follow lockdown restrictions ‘to the letter’ amid fears the extremely-transmissible variant could undermine New Zealand’s brutal ‘zero-Covid’ strategy.

She referred to neighbouring Australia’s difficulty in controlling the spread of the virus when she addressed the nation. 

Covid infection rates in Australia and New Zealand have been exceptionally low throughout the pandemic, but even with the latest outbreaks, they are still a fraction of cases in the UK and US.

In New Zealand, there are less than two infected people per million in the population and Australia recorded just 23 cases per million people, according to figures from Our World in Data.

For comparison, there are 450 people per million tested positive for the virus in the UK, while rates are slightly lower in the US (426).

Israel, which is currently experiencing an outbreak that led officials to impose restrictions on everyone aged over three, is recording 757 per million.

It comes as Australia’s New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian announced harsh new restrictions and extended the Greater Sydney lockdown until the end of September as the state struggles to contain outbreaks of the Delta variant. 

From Monday, a curfew will be enforced in the parts of Sydney most affected by rising cases meaning people in those areas will not be allowed to leave their homes between 9pm and 5am. 

Australia’s roadmap out of the pandemic calls for lockdowns to largely end when 80 per cent of the adult population are vaccinated, along with just 30-40 cases a day

‘Because even countries around the world with 80 per cent double-dose vaccination still rely on QR codes, mask wearing in certain settings,’ Ms Berejiklian said.

‘We know that whilst the Delta variant in particular is very active around the world, there will always be a level of protection we need to have.

‘I am not about to make any decision… which is going to either impact our case numbers or risk life.’

And on Monday, Ms Berejiklian said she intended to keep restrictions well into 2022 to avoid outbreaks.

‘We will need to live with restrictions so long as Delta is around… even if we had zero cases and we were at 80 per cent double dose, you would still have to respect rules that exist… around social distancing, around mask-wearing,’ she said on Monday.

‘So long as Delta and deadly Covid is around, we will always need to live with a measure of restriction. 

Australia and New Zealand have won widespread praise for its coronavirus response, which focuses on eliminating the virus in the community rather than containing it.

New Zealand seen only 26 deaths in a population of five million, while Australia registered on 974 in a population of over 25 million. 

But in both states, the vaccine rollout has been less stellar, with only around 20 per cent of Kiwis fully inoculated and only 22 per cent of Australians.