New Zealand is extending its nationwide lockdown until Tuesday as its COVID outbreak worsens with 70 new cases.
In a 1:00pm press conference, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that all regions below the Auckland boundary would move to a lower alert level – alert level 3 – on August 31.
Auckland, which is the epicentre of the current outbreak, and neighbouring Northland will remain in full level 4 lockdown, possibly for another 2 weeks, Ms Ardern said.
All of today's 70 new cases were detected in Auckland.
"As we have seen in this outbreak, Delta is definitely more infectious and it also moves more quickly," Ms Ardern said.
New Zealand's Chief Medical Officer Ashley Bloomfield said in the press conference that Auckland wouldn't need to get to zero cases in order to move to a lower alert level.
What you can do in alert level 3
Under alert level 3, businesses can only operate for click and collect or contactless services.
Bars and restaurants remain shut except for takeaways.
Public venues remain closed, while crowds at wedding and funerals are limited to 10 people.
The prime minister added that the country was possibly starting to see a plateau in cases.
New Zealand has been largely free of the virus since last year, barring a small number of cases in February, but that changed last week after an outbreak of the Delta variant erupted in Auckland, prompting Ms Ardern to order the lockdown.
The country has been in lockdown since August 17.
It has about 2,900 confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far and 26 related deaths.
The country, which has managed to escape the worst of the pandemic thus far, now has a total of 347 cases in its current outbreak.
More than one million New Zealanders are fully vaccinated.
Businesses worried about the future
Ms Ardern's tough lockdowns and international border closure in March 2020 helped rein in COVID-19, but the government now faces questions over a delayed vaccine rollout, as well as rising costs in a country heavily reliant on an immigrant workforce.
About 21 per cent of the country's 5.1 million people has been fully vaccinated, the slowest pace among the wealthy nations of the OECD grouping.
Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce chief executive Leeann Watson said the lockdown extension was "disappointing".
Mike Toweel, the founder of LED Display and Sign Specialist firm VitrineMedia NZ, told Reuters the lockdowns had been "heartbreaking" for small businesses.
"What the New Zealand government does not address is that every time they have this knee-jerk reaction they put another chink in the armour of business confidence," Mr Toweel said.
Ms Ardern has defended the government's position, saying elimination is the right strategy until everyone is vaccinated.
"Our goal at the moment is to vaccinate more people than any other country in the world, and at this rate New Zealand is doing very well," she said.
ABC/Reuters
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