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New Zealand under total confinement until next Tuesday; 11 Delta variant cases

Saturday, August 21st 2021 - 09:50 UTC
Full article 4 comments
“We don’t have an idea of the magnitude of the Delta outbreak, but we must continue to be cautious”, pointed out PM Jacinda Ardern at a press conference “We don’t have an idea of the magnitude of the Delta outbreak, but we must continue to be cautious”, pointed out PM Jacinda Ardern at a press conference

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Friday that New Zealand will remain under confinement unit next 24 August because of the spread of a Covid 19 outbreak detected earlier this week in Auckland.

Ardern who has guided New Zealand impeccably in the fight against the pandemic, with quick and early confinements had ordered last Tuesday that Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula must remain locked in for seven days, and the rest of the country three days, following the first report of a Covid 19 case in six months.

However on Friday New Zealand health authorities reported eleven cases of the Delta variant, totaling 31 contagions, including three in Wellington. It is the first time that cases outside Auckland, the most populated city of the country, have been detected and thus the drastic decision to total confinement until next Tuesday.

“We don-t have an idea of the magnitude of the Delta outbreak, but we must continue to be cautious”, pointed out PM Ardern at a press conference in Wellington.

New Zealand with a population of five million has 2,900 confirmed and probable cases of Covid 19 since the beginning of the pandemic, including 26 deaths and 52 cases. Health authorities have increased the vaccination campaign with Pfizer jabs.

Hopefully at the end of the year, when most of the population has been vaccinated, the PM Ardern government is considering opening its borders during the first quarter of 2022, which have been closed since March 2020. Allegedly access to NZ will depend on the traveler's immunization and the country of origin.

Top Comments

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  • Frank

    Not sure what photos you refer to as your link fetches up at a 404.
    There is not a government mandated vaccination requirement in either country.

    We had a few thousand ratbags - out of a population of 25 million - protesting about lockdowns yesterday ( Saturday) in three cities. The Brisbane protest was peaceful.
    By so doing they are simply helping the virus continue to spread. A majority of citizens are happy to be working for the common good.

    There are unsubstantiated reports of Victoria Police using rubber bullets but nothing in the 'quality press' . Maybe they were used after the protesters started firing parachute distress flares at the police.

    At present in Australia we have a choice of either Phizer or Astra Zenica.

    Aug 22nd, 2021 - 02:32 am +1
  • Frank

    Vaccination is a matter of personal choice in Australia but it is also up to individual companies to decide whether to employ the unvaxxed or not. Qantas has already said 'frontline' workers, aircrew, terminal staff etc, must be vaxxed by , I think, November.
    Not to surprising that our most heavy handed state -NSW- is also the most right wing.
    This may be of interest - it is directed fair and square at the NSW government's daily response to crisis.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/16/we-hate-covid-but-we-hate-it-even-more-when-politicians-try-to-police-their-way-out-of-a-public-health-crisis?utm_term=a74863ad66a2846ef6e1146e38520b67&utm_campaign=FirstDogOnTheMoon&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=firstdog_email

    Aug 22nd, 2021 - 09:13 pm 0
  • Chicureo

    I’m appalled at the images sent to me from a competitor grower in Australia that defies the image of a Democratic NewZealand and Australia that I’ve always admired.


    Many of their citizens are against the severe restrictions place on a society based on individual liberty.

    Taking a vaccine should be a voluntary election — not a government imposed mandate.

    I am not against vaccines although I’m highly skeptical of mRNA type vaccines!



    There is strong evidence that the mRNA type vaccines are fraught with severe complications including death. 



    Others warn that the natural immune system may be weakened. (This being claimed by the actual scientist that developed mRNA technology.)

    (

I voluntarily received earlier my third COVID Sinovac* vaccine which is NOT a mRNA type vaccine!)

    Certainly the future democratic elections will result in the ouster of these Orwellian thugs.

    Heavily armed police fire on Peaceful Protesters in Melbourne — August 21, 2021. https://xyz.net.au/2021/08/rubber-bullets-heavily-armed-police-fire-on-peaceful-protesters-in-melbourne/




    ¡Saludos cordales desde Valle Nevado!



    (* Sinovac uses a more traditional technology that is similar to the inactivated polio vaccine. Initially, a sample of SARS-CoV-2 from China was used to grow large quantities of the virus using vero cells.)

    Aug 21st, 2021 - 05:58 pm -1
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