New Zealand PM warns virus outbreak will grow

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, seen here in March 2021, has said the discovery of new coronavirus cases justifies her decision to issue nationwide stay-at-home orders

New Zealanders must brace for additional Covid-19 cases from an outbreak that has plunged the previously virus-free country into a snap lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warned Wednesday after nine more positive tests.

Ardern confirmed New Zealand was dealing with the highly transmissible Delta variant linked to the outbreak in Australia that authorities have so far been unable to contain.

"It demonstrates, at this stage, Level 4 (hard lockdown) is the right place to be," Ardern told TVNZ.

"We're expecting more," she said as officials revealed modelling predicted there could already be up to 120 cases in the community linked to the cluster.

Ardern said investigators were trying to work out how the man caught the strain linked to Australia.

"The natural place to start is to look at our managed isolation (border) facilities."

- 'Unpredictable and disruptive' -

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said there were no obvious links between the border cases from New South Wales -- of which Sydney is the capital -- and the 10-strong cluster in Auckland, four of whom were flatmates in their 20s.

Ardern was confident that even with more cases, her government's strategy of eliminating the virus, rather than just containing it, would succeed.

She said wastewater testing in Auckland had detected no sign of the virus, giving cause for optimism.

"It is disappointing that some choose to put others at risk," Ardern told reporters, saying most people were following the rules.

Analysts had predicted before the outbreak that the central bank would lift rates amid improving economic signs. 

ns/hr/jfx

...