New Zealand wages high-stakes effort to halt virus outbreak

By early next week, New Zealanders should know if their government’s strict new lockdown is working to stamp out its first coronavirus outbreak in six months

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- By early next week, New Zealanders should know if their government's strict new lockdown is working to stamp out its first coronavirus outbreak in six months. A successful effort could again make the nation's virus response the envy of the world. A failure could expose flaws in its health system, including a shortage of hospital beds and a slow vaccine rollout. The high-stakes campaign hinges on whether new infections, which have risen for the past 10 days, begin to drop. Last week, the government put the nation into the full lockdown after only a single community case was detected in the city of Auckland..