(Zaobao News) New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern changed his anti-epidemic strategy and decided to abandon the zero reset and choose to coexist with the coronavirus.
Reuters reported that Ardern said on Monday (4th) that the outbreak caused by the Delta variant coronavirus showed that it is extremely difficult to return to zero cases. The government therefore decided to change its policy, hoping to coexist with the coronavirus while controlling the spread of the virus.
Auckland, New Zealand’s most populous city, is at the core of this wave of epidemics. In order to contain the mutant virus, 1.7 million people in Auckland have been under lockdown for nearly 50 days.
Ardern said that starting on October 6, Auckland will relax control measures in phases.
She said that Auckland will still maintain the third level of epidemic prevention alert level, but some restrictions will be lifted, including allowing two families to gather outdoors, but the number of people shall not exceed 10.
Australian Health Minister Hunter said that the epidemic caused by the Delta variant virus seems to have eased.
The New Zealand Ministry of Health reported on Monday that there were 29 community cases in the past 24 hours, 28 of which were in Auckland and one in Waikato, 147 kilometers south of Auckland.
As of Monday, the total number of confirmed cases in this wave of New Zealand has increased to 1,357.
In terms of COVID-19 vaccination, about 48% or 2 million of the population of approximately 5 million people in New Zealand have completed vaccinations against coronavirus.
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