New Zealand is on high alert after a Covid-19 case was registered after six months. It immediately imposed a snap three-day lockdown Tuesday after identifying a single case in Auckland, which is suspected to be the Delta variant.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand, which had recorded no cases for six months, could not take any chances with the Delta strain.
“We have seen what can happen elsewhere if we cannot get on top of it. We only get one chance,” Ardern said.
“We are better to start high and be cautious, then move out as soon as we are comfortable doing so, than to start low and be in that phase (lockdown) for much, much longer,” she added.
As per reports, New Zealand plans to impose the lockdown for three days from Tuesday night, with Auckland and the Coromandel area having the restrictions for a week.
The country has managed to get the upper hand on the virus as it centred on eliminating it rather than containing it. Notably, New Zealand has registered just 26 deaths in a population of five million.