New Zealand delays election over coronavirus fears
The prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, has postponed the country's general election by a month amid a spike in coronavirus cases.
The vote was due to happen on 19 September but will now be held on 17 October instead.
Ms Ardern said on Monday that the brand new date allows parties "to plan around the number of circumstances we will be campaigning under".
Earlier this week, the country's major city went back into lockdown.
"This decision gives all parties time over the next nine weeks to campaign and the Electoral Commission plenty of time to make sure an election can just do it," Ms Ardern said, adding that she had "absolutely no intention" of allowing any more delays to the vote.
The opposition National Party has argued the election ought to be delayed as restrictions on campaigning mean Ms Ardern had an unfair advantage.
Restrictions were imposed on Auckland on Wednesday after several new infections were recognized in the city.
Nine new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Monday, bringing the amount of active cases from the Auckland cluster to 58.
The outbreak was primarily traced back again to members of one family, although Ms Ardern later said that subsequent contact-tracing had found a youthful case involving a shop worker who became sick on 31 July.
A health official who knew the family told the brand new Zealand Herald that the family were "shell-shocked" and "a little embarrassed that it had happened to them".
The announcement that new cases have been discovered shocked the united states, which had recorded no locally transmitted cases for a lot more than three months.
There are four "alert levels" in New Zealand, and Auckland has been on Level 3 because the new measures were announced. All of those other country is on Level 2.
Prior to the new cluster was identified, the government had lifted the vast majority of its lockdown restrictions, that have been first imposed in March.
New Zealand has reported a lot more than 1,600 infections and 22 deaths because the pandemic began, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
An early lockdown, tough border restrictions, effective health messaging and an aggressive test-and-trace programme had all been credited with almost eliminating the virus in the country.
