‘Within sight of elimination’: New Zealand eases Covid restrictions outside Auckland

Tom Ambrose @tomambrose896 September 2021

New Zealand has announced coronavirus curbs will be largely lifted outside of the biggest city, Auckland, as the country gets on top of its Delta variant outbreak.

The country had been largely virus-free, excluding a small cluster of cases in February, until the outbreak prompted a national lockdown in August.

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern, who said restrictions would be eased outside Auckland from Wednesday, is continuing to pursue an elimination strategy for the virus.

“We are within sight of elimination, but we can't drop the ball,” Ardern said at a televised news conference.

“Day-by-day we are making very good progress. What I don't want to do is move too quickly and then see a resurgence.”

About 1.7 million people in greater Auckland, the epicentre of the outbreak, will remain in a full level 4 lockdown until at least September 14.

The easing of the alert status to level 2 from level 3 in the rest of the country will allow the reopening of schools, offices and businesses. Regional travel will also be allowed.

Face masks will still be required inside most public venues, including shops and malls. Indoor hospitality venues will be limited to 50 patrons and outdoor venues to 100 people.

Daily new cases in the current outbreak have dropped from a peak of 85 on August 29 to 20 on Monday.

The current outbreak is responsible for 821 of the country's total of about 3,400 Covid cases since the start of the pandemic. It has reported 27 deaths.

Meanwhile, authorities in Australia's New South Wales said on Monday daily infections were expected to peak next week, as they look to speed up immunisations ahead of easing restrictions.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the government's modelling revealed the state would require its highest number of intensive care beds in early October.

Daily cases in Sydney's worst-affected suburbs are expected to rise to as high as 2,000 until the middle of this month, the modelling showed.

“I do want to qualify that to say that modelling depends on a number of things, a number of variables ... if too many of us do the wrong thing, there are too many super-spreading events, we could see those numbers higher,” Berejiklian said during a media briefing in Sydney.

A total of 1,071 Covid cases are currently in hospitals, with 177 people in intensive care (ICU), with 67 requiring ventilation.

The state detected 1,281 new cases on Monday, most of them in Sydney, down from 1,485 a day earlier. Five new deaths were recorded.

Additional reporting by Reuters.

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