New Zealand's Covid minister said that the country would not abandon its elimination strategy as the number of cases continues to rise.
New Zealand reported 63 additional cases of Covid-19 Wednesday. This brings the total to 210. This is the highest single-day increase in cases since last week's outbreak. Twelve people are currently being treated for the virus.
International media and commentators have raised concerns about whether the country should pursue its elimination strategy. However, Chris Hipkins, Covid-19 response minister, stated that the country will continue to follow its current course.
New Zealanders back home are asking if this is still the right strategy. He said it was too early to give up. It would be a waste to abandon this fight now that we have come so far. We want to end this particular Covid-19 outbreak in our community, and return to normalcy.
Hipkins stated that although we want to see lockdowns as an answer to any potential outbreaks in the community, we are not there yet and we certainly don't plan to quit before we reach that point.
His comments were echoed by Jacinda Ardern on Monday, the prime minister: Everyone is now in agreement that elimination is the strategy. She said that there is no debate or discussion among us about this, as it is the best option while we vaccinate people.
New Zealanders continue to be supportive of the government's approach to Covid. Only 10% of New Zealanders believe elimination is the best strategy, according to The Spinoff polling released Wednesday. Sixty-nine per cent supported the strategy, while 21% were uncertain. A second poll revealed that 84% of New Zealanders supported the move to lockdown last week.
Although cases are steadily increasing, experts stress that New Zealand may still be seeing results from people infected before lockdown began. Daily case numbers could continue to rise for several more days. It is still not clear if the level four lockdown is effective in containing Delta due to the time it takes to develop the virus and the delay in processing test results.
Ashley Bloomfield, director general of the health, stated that although cases are increasing steadily, they are not growing at an exponential rate. He stated that there is a level four lockdown which explains why the rate of growth isn't exponential.
Hipkins stated that the country had set a new record for vaccinations with 80,000 people getting doses Tuesday.
The current New Zealand outbreak has been limited to the North Island. Twelve of the cases are located in Wellington and the rest in Auckland. This cluster has approximately 20,383 contacts. Health officials have made contact with 12,700 of them.
The entire country is under lockdown. The government will provide an update Friday on whether the country will remain at level four lockdown or whether restrictions for other cities will be lifted.
