New Zealand has long been considered a model student in corona politics: The goal of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government was to completely eliminate the virus – with strict quarantine rules, rigorous entry controls and lockdowns. Due to the island location, this has worked very well so far. In the country of five million people, there have been only 26 deaths from Covid-19 since the pandemic began.
The Delta variant is now undoing this success story: Health Minister Chris Hipkins had to admit yesterday that the government’s zero-covid strategy had failed: “The extent of the contagion and the speed with which the virus has spread are in our system despite all the preparations under pressure, “said Hipkins on Sunday. The current outbreak with the delta variant is difficult to contain.
After the occurrence of a domestically transmitted corona case, 71 people have now tested positive for the virus, according to the Minister of Health. The delta variant is “like nothing that we have had to deal with in this pandemic,” said Hipkins. “It means that all of our preparations so far seem less meaningful, and it raises some pretty big questions about the future of our long-term plans.”
So far only 20 percent vaccinated
Opposition politician Chris Bishop criticized that the latest outbreak made it clear that the government had paid too little attention to the progress of the vaccination campaign. “The government’s complacency and inability to ensure the supply and delivery of the vaccine has made easy prey for all of us,” he said.
In fact, only around 20 percent of the population are vaccinated. Because of the initial successes, the government was too sure of itself and took too long to procure vaccines.
