Covid-19: New Zealand extends its confinement in the face of the wave of the Delta variant

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces the containment of the whole country, to face the latest wave of the Delta variant of Covid-19, during a press conference in Wellington, August 18, 2021 © Mark Mitchell, AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

In New Zealand, just five days after the start of confinement decreed with the discovery of a case of the Delta variant of Covid-19, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared on Monday August 23 the extension of the measure until August 31, while it was to end on Tuesday 24. According to her, the country, which now has 107 positive cases, has not yet " 

reached the peak of this outbreak

 ".

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With our correspondent in Wellington,

Richard Tindiller

This is a scenario that no one had seen coming:

a Delta variant which is spreading at very high speed

and

total containment for the country

which now extends until Friday August 27 at midnight evening ... and at least until the 31st. August for the city of Auckland, which has more than 90% of positive cases.

The land frozen again 

New Zealand, which had not experienced

Covid-19 contamination since February

, was overtaken by the pandemic and the Delta variant, freezing the country again.

The sentiment is likely to last, despite initial estimates which predicted a peak at 120 positive cases across the country.

On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern held up a map of New Zealand showing blue dots over almost the entire country: 14,000 dots in total, which represents all people who have been in close contact with positive cases.

400 locations

Contacts and a list of locations they've been found keeps growing.

That is to say more than 400 locations that the authorities do not hesitate to share on social networks to better fight against the epidemic which is hitting New Zealand again.

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Read also: Covid-19 in New Zealand: faced with the Delta variant, the country lacks vaccine doses

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• New Zealand

• Confinement

• Coronavirus