New Zealand's COVID-19 strategy criticised as lockdown extended
WELLINGTON, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern extended New Zealand's coronavirus lockdown on Monday, saying the current outbreak has not peaked, as criticism mounts of her strategy to eliminate COVID-19 amid the slow rollout of its vaccine programme.
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.
Ardern extended the strict level 4 national lockdown by three days until midnight on Aug. 27 while its largest city Auckland, the epicentre of the current outbreak, will have restrictions in place at least until Aug. 31.
"We don't yet believe that we have reached the peak of this outbreak, or necessarily the edge of it," Ardern said at a news conference in the capital Wellington.
"That does mean the safest options for all of us right now is to hold the course for longer," she added.