New Zealand’s Covid-19 Cases Quadruple Overnight Due To Delta Variant

New Zealand was put under nationwide lockdown on Tuesday (17 August) after recording one case of Covid-19. In just one day, the country’s cases have quadrupled after four close contacts were identified.

According to the Ministry of Health, New Zealand, one of the close contacts is a colleague of the first case, while the other three are contacts of this colleague.

One of the three contacts was identified as a health professional at Auckland City Hospital who is fully vaccinated and had been working in recent days.

The Ministry also confirmed that the first case was infected with the Delta variant, which spreads fast and is more contagious.

Auckland City Hospital took immediate action to prevent any potential spread, including stopping unnecessary movements between wards, testing all staff and patients on the ward the health professional worked on and testing and isolating staff on the same ward.

“The Ministry received the results last night of the genome sequencing for case A. It is the Delta variant. We are undertaking further analysis to see how it could be connected to cases we know about,” the statement said.

“These developments strongly reinforce the importance of the actions taken last night in the move to level 4 and underpin the importance of everyone keeping to the lockdown conditions.”

“Our approach has worked to date – hard and fast has meant fewer lockdowns, fewer deaths and hospitalisations, and a more open economy, so we know what to do, we just need to do it again but even stronger than before – we are up against a more dangerous adversary in Delta.”

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern certainly made the right call in implementing a nationwide lockdown even with just one Covid-19 to prevent the situation from getting worse. 

Also read: “We only get one chance” New Zealand Goes Into Nationwide Lockdown After ONE Covid-19 Case