The normally bustling high street in Auckland's CBD is largely deserted during a lockdown to stop the spread of a coronavirus disease COVID 19 outbreak in Auckland, New Zealand, August 26, 2021. WELLINGTON, Oct 3 Reuters: The Delta variant outbreak spread beyond the largest city of Auckland, prompting Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to put additional regions in snap lockdown.
There were 32 new coronavirus cases and two cases in the Waikato region, which has been in lockdown since mid August, some 147 kilometers 91 miles south of Auckland. Ardern said parts of the region would go into a five-day lockdown.
She added that the government will decide on Monday whether Auckland residents will remain sealed off from the rest of New Zealand.
Ardern enforced what was meant to be a major national lock down in mid-August in response to the Auckland outbreak, which is now at 1,328 cases.
But while the rest of the country has largely returned to normal life, the North Island City has remained in lockdown.
We are doing everything that we can to keep cases confined to Auckland and managing them there, Ardern said.
While New Zealand was among just a handful of countries to bring COVID - 19 cases down to zero last year and largely remained virus-free until the latest outbreak in August, difficulties in quashing the Delta variant have put Ardern's elimination strategy in question.
Amid mounting pressure, Ardern has said her strategy was never to have zero cases, but to aggressively eradicate the virus.
She has said strict lockdowns can end when 90% of the eligible population is vaccinated, compared with the current 46%.
On Sunday, full vaccination became a requirement for non-New Zealanders arriving in the country from Nov. 1, COVID - 19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said: "We are not citizens anymore."
Air New Zealand AIR.NZ said on Sunday it will require passengers on its international flights to be fully vaccinated against COVID -19.
Ardern has a different approach to COVID in our sights and our hands, on Sunday said Dr. Kaplan.
As we all look forward and think about Summer, and the plans we are making, makes the first step a vaccine. It is the thing that makes those summer plans possible.