Reconfining the country for a single case of Covid-19.
The decision may seem surreal from France, but it is a reality in New Zealand.
This Tuesday, Labor Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern decreed a three-day lockdown on the entire archipelago due to the discovery of a case of Covid-19 on a 58-year-old man.
⚠️ COVID-19 UPDATE ⚠️
From 11:59 pm tonight, all of New Zealand will move to Alert Level 4 to stop the spread of COVID-19 in our communities.
This will initially be for a period of 7 days for the Auckland and Coromandel regions, and at least 3 days for rest of the country.
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- New Zealand Labor (@nzlabour) August 17, 2021
The Auckland region, the country's largest city, as well as that of Comorandel, will be confined for a week.
The head of government said that New Zealand, which had not recorded any contamination in the population for six months, could not take risks with the Delta variant, much more contagious, which "changes the game".
"We are expecting more"
This Wednesday, Jacinda Ardern spoke again to announce that the country should prepare for other cases of Covid in the coming days. Already six new cases have been identified in 24 hours while no contamination has been recorded over the last six months. Among them, a teacher and a nurse who, given their function "were able to quickly transmit the virus", according to Jacinda Ardern. "We expect more," she said, as authorities expect the outbreak to rise to 120 cases, despite the restrictions put in place. According to the Prime Minister, the arrival of this Delta variant on New Zealand soil is linked to the situation in Australia where the epidemic is struggling to be contained. However, it is impossible for the moment to determine how this 58-year-old man could have been infected.
The archipelago has been praised abroad for its effective management of the Covid-19 epidemic which, so far, has only killed 26 people for a population of five million. However, these good figures are struggling to get the vaccination campaign off the ground. Only 20% of New Zealanders received their two doses of the vaccine.
