Virus outbreak will grow, warns Ardern

(File photo) New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

New Zealanders must brace for additional Covid-19 cases from an outbreak that has plunged the previously virus-free country into a snap lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warned yesterday after six more positive tests. Ardern confirmed New Zealand was dealing with the highly transmissible Delta variant linked to the outbreak in Australia that authorities have so far been unable to contain. Ardern said the rapid rise to a total of seven cases justified her decision to issue nationwide stay-at-home orders on Tuesday after the first case was identified. “It demonstrates, at this stage, Level 4 (hard lockdown) is the right place to be,” Ardern told TVNZ. She said one of the new cases was a nurse at Auckland Hospital and another was a teacher at a high school, both representing high-risk environments for rapidly spreading the virus. “We’re expecting more,” she said as officials revealed modelling predicted the cluster grow to 120 cases, even with stringent restrictions in place. The initial infection, a 58-year-old Auckland man, ended a six-month run without community transmission in New Zealand, which has recorded only 26 Covid-19 deaths in a population of 5mn since the start of the pandemic. Ardern said investigators were trying to work out how the man caught the strain linked to Australia. “Our case has originated in Australia, now the job we have is to work through how and when it got here,” she said. “The natural place to start is to look at our managed isolation (border) facilities.” The national lockdown — New Zealand’s first in 15 months — is scheduled to last three days, with Auckland and the nearby Coromandel area facing restrictions for a week.