New Zealand extends lockdown measures to contain COVID-19 outbreak

New Zealand on Friday extended lockdown measures throughout the archipelago in an attempt to contain the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic caused by the Delta strain that has spread from Auckland to the capital, Wellington.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the national lockdown, which was imposed for three days and was supposed to end Friday night, will be extended for an additional four days.

She stressed that the authorities are trying to assess the scale of the pandemic after discovering this week the first local infection in six months, calling on the population to exercise caution.

Ardern explained that all of the cases, including those discovered in Wellington, are linked, which is a less worrisome element.

"This means that we are starting to get an idea of the totality" of the people involved, she said, noting that "so far, no unexpected injury has been recorded."

For the first time in six months, New Zealand recorded its first local infection with the virus on Aug. 17.

Many countries praised the archipelago for its effective management of the epidemic crisis so far, with only 26 deaths recorded in it, with a population of five million people.

The vaccination campaign is still slow in New Zealand, with only about 20 percent of the population fully vaccinated.