Corona Virus: New Zealand recorded a record daily increase

New Zealand recorded, on Tuesday, the highest daily increase in new cases of coronavirus since the beginning of the epidemic. This happened at a time when the country was forced to abandon the “zero-tolerance of Covid” strategy to expand the shape of the delta, AFP and Reuters reported.

break the record

They have recorded 94 new cases in New Zealand in the last 24 hours. The record was surpassed from the first wave of the epidemic last April, when 89 new cases of infection occurred in New Zealand in one day.

Most of the new cases were recorded on Tuesday in Auckland’s largest city, where there have been up to 87 infections. This is despite the fact that severe epidemics have been raging in Auckland for several weeks. In addition, the city extended the lockdown again by two weeks on Monday, which it introduced there in mid-August.

The government accuses unvaccinated people and those who break the rules of increasing the number of new cases.

“intolerance”

“The rules apply to everyone, as does the requirement to test anyone who shows symptoms,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters.

New Zealand was one of the few countries in the world that last year - in the first phase of the epidemic - managed to reduce the number of coronavirus infections to zero, thanks to strict restrictions on international travel. The island nation had been free of a single infection for several months, until a new, highly contagious species of delta began spreading in the most populous city of Auckland in mid-August.

For the pervasive delta variant, the New Zealand government has finally had to abandon the “zero-tolerance” strategy and instead decide to focus on vaccinating as many people as possible.

According to Reuters, about 67 percent of the population there is currently being vaccinated, and last week the government introduced a mandatory COVID-19 vaccine for most health professionals and teachers.