NZ on edge after virus infected Australian visits
After enjoying nearly four months without any community transmission of the corona virus, New Zealanders were on edge Wednesday after health authorities said an infectious traveler from Australia had visited over the weekend. New Zealand has taken a zero-tolerance method of the pandemic and continues to pursue an elimination strategy.
The country's response has been among the most effective on earth and the isolated nation of 5 million persons has recorded just 26 COVID-19 deaths. But its vaccination campaign has been far slower than generally in most developed countries, with just 13 percent of the population having gotten their first dose. Although there have been no immediate cases confirmed because of this of the traveler's visit from Sydney to New Zealand's capital Wellington, authorities were asking persons at greater than a dozen places to self-isolate for 14 days and get tested. They also imposed physical distancing requirements in the Wellington region and restricted crowd sizes to 100 from Wednesday evening through Sunday. "I'm confident that if we do everything we have done before, if people do what's asked of them.
we will reduce the chance," said Ashley Bloomfield, the director-general of health.
Bloomfield said the traveler was associated with a Sydney outbreak of the more contagious Delta variant that started in India.
