New Zealand’s largest city Auckland will stay under an alert level 4 lockdown for another two weeks, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.
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Addressing a news conference, Ardern said restrictions in Northland - a region on the northern-most tip of the country bordering Auckland - will be eased to alert level 3, effective midnight on Thursday, from level 4.
Ardern garnered global praise for stamping out COVID-19 in New Zealand last year and the country was virus-free since February. But an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus last week while few people have been vaccinated has called into question the approach of snap lockdowns and border restrictions that have curtailed the economy.
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