Covid-19: New Zealand maintains containment pending peak

"Stay home, stay safe, be kind".

The demand that the New Zealand government is making on its people is unequivocal.

New Zealand again maintained its national containment on Monday in the face of the progression of the Covid-19 epidemic, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying that the wave of contaminations caused by the Delta variant had not yet reached its peak.

“Delta is one step ahead of us and we had to get up to it as quickly as possible.

We don't think we've reached the peak of this outbreak, ”said Jacinda Ardern.

The Prime Minister said it was too early to lift the restrictions after the appearance last week of the first locally-sourced Covid case detected in an Auckland resident.

Extended for the first time, confinement, which was to end on Tuesday, was still maintained until Friday throughout the archipelago and until the evening of August 31 in Auckland.

The "Zero Covid" strategy undermined

A total of 35 new cases have been detected, bringing the total to 107, and tests are underway for more than 13,000 people who have been in close contact.

“The safest option for everyone is to stay in the race longer,” said Jacinda Ardern.

"This will allow us to have more data and to see if the virus has spread," she added, being optimistic: "our plan has worked before and together we can make it work again. ".

'Rush hour' this morning, on one of Wellington's most busy roads, pic.twitter.com/iDyoBcfNUm

- Jason Walls (@ Jasonwalls92) August 17, 2021

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, New Zealand acknowledged on Sunday that its “zero Covid” strategy was threatened by the spread of the Delta variant. "All our existing measures seem less suitable and this raises questions about the future of our long-term strategy", had notably admitted the minister in charge of the fight against Covid-19, Chris Hipkins. Australia is also experiencing a resumption of its difficult-to-control epidemic. Sydney tightened its lockdown there last week, with fines of up to $ 5,000 for people who violate lockdown.