After a seven-week battle against the delta variant of COVID-19, New Zealand is throwing in the towel in its pursuit of zero infections.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Monday that the city of Auckland will begin to ease lockdown restrictions beginning Wednesday — Auckland residents will be able to meet outdoors with 10 others, early childhood centers will reopen, and residents can go to the beach or the park, according to Reuters.
“For this outbreak, it’s clear that long periods of heavy restrictions has not got us to zero cases,” Ardern said. “But that is OK. Elimination was important because we didn’t have vaccines. Now we do, so we can begin to change the way we do things.”
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Ardern’s announcement was criticized on multiple fronts, with the country’s former Prime Minister Winston Peters joking that business owners in Auckland who are struggling through the lockdown can now at least have a picnic. Judith Collins, the president of the New Zealand National Party, was also critical of Ardern’s plan, calling it “terrible” and “a complete failure.”
For all those struggling businesses and workers in Auckland – at least Labour has said you can go have a picnic now.
The “plan” has as much chance of making sense as an episode of ‘Sensing Murder’…something might happen, sometime, maybe…never.
— Winston Peters (@winstonpeters) October 4, 2021
This is terrible for New Zealand. The time for courage and committing to a strategy was now. Ardern and her Govt have elected to play pick n mix instead.
Not enough freedom and not enough mitigating risk. A complete failure.— Judith Collins (@JudithCollinsMP) October 4, 2021
Ardern put Auckland under lockdown in August when a man returned to the city carrying COVID-19. The lockdown was intended to last only a week, but it continued for nearly 50 days. Despite the lockdown, 29 new cases in the country were reported on Monday, with a majority of them in Auckland.
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New Zealand’s rollout of COVID-19 vaccines continues to grow as more residents get vaccinated against the virus.
As of Oct. 3, 79% of New Zealand residents eligible to get vaccinated have received their first dose, with 48% fully vaccinated, according to the country’s Ministry of Health.
