New Zealand goes into snap lockdown over single suspected Delta case

NEW Zealand will go into a snap three-day lockdown after a new local case of COVID-19 was detected in Auckland, which authorities assume is the Delta variant.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed that the country would move to Alert Level Four from 11.59pm tonight (local time).

Under Alert Level Four restrictions, people can only leave the house for essential shopping, essential work, and exercise within their bubble.

For New Zealanders, ‘the bubble’ includes people in a person’s immediate household, and others who are dependent on them.

“The bubble is back,” Ardern announced during a news conference.

“The best thing we can do to get out of this as quickly as we can is to go hard.

“We have made the decision on the basis that it is better to start high and go down levels rather than go low, not contain the virus and see it move quickly.”

The lockdown will last three days nationally at this point, although Ardern has said that Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula would likely be locked down for a week.

The case, a 58-year-old man, became symptomatic on Saturday (Aug 14) and is expected to have been infectious since Aug 12.

His wife, who is fully vaccinated, returned a negative test.

The case is the country’s first coronavirus case in six months. – Aug 17, 2021.

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