New Zealand extends nationwide lockdown for 4 more days

ANKARA (AA) - New Zealand on Monday again extended its nationwide COVID-19 lockdown till Aug. 27, state-run media said.

Speaking to reporters, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that the Cabinet has decided all of New Zealand will remain on Level 4 lockdown for another four days.

Auckland, the country’s major city, will remain under lockdown till Aug. 31

“Delta has changed the rules of the game, but we have changed our approach too, we have hardened our alert levels, widened our contact tracing, required more mask-wearing and we are testing more people,” Radio New Zealand quoted Ardern as saying.

“It is absolutely possible to get on top of this, we just need to keep it up and ensure that we're not in restrictions any longer than we need to be,” she added.

New Zealand confirmed the first case of the Delta variant in a traveler who arrived in the country from the Australian state of New South Wales last week.

Last Tuesday, New Zealand authorities put the entire country on Level 4 lockdown after the first locally transmitted COVID-19 case was reported in the community since February.

Meanwhile, on the recommendation of the health authorities, the country's parliament also suspended its sessions for a week.

Under Level 4 restrictions, everyone must stay home and businesses will be closed except for essential services such as supermarkets and pharmacies.

Last September, New Zealand lifted all restrictions across the nation, and there were no new cases for seven months.

But during the past 24 hours, the country reported 38 cases in Auckland and Wellington.

Since the outbreak began locally in 2020, New Zealand has reported 3,054 COVID-19 cases and 26 deaths in a population of about 5 million.

To protect people from the deadly virus, so far over 1.7 million people have gotten their first vaccine dose, while over one million have been fully vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry data.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid