New Zealand to abandon zero-Covid strategy as Delta variant proves hard to shake

                         

New Zealand will begin to move away from a zero-Covid strategy toward living with the virus, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday, becoming the latest country to abandon its elimination attempts in the face of the highly-contagious Delta variant.

After shutting its borders early in the pandemic, New Zealand has reported just 4,409 Covid-19 infections and 27 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University -- among the lowest case numbers of any country.

But an outbreak in August, sparked by the Delta strain, plunged the major city of Auckland into a long lockdown. And despite the city enduring more than six weeks of restrictions on movement, New Zealand reported 24 new cases in the community on Tuesday -- the majority found in Auckland.

Ardern admitted Monday the virus was "a tentacle that has been incredibly hard to shake."

"To date we've managed to largely control the outbreak, but as you can see with this outbreak and with Delta, the return to zero is incredibly difficult," she said, adding that long periods of tough restrictions had been unable to sufficiently reduce infections.

Source CNN