New Zealand to abandon zero-Covid strategy as Delta variant proves hard to shake

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand will begin to move away from a zero-Covid strategy toward living with the virus becoming, the latest country to abandon its elimination attempts in the face of the highly contagious Delta variant.

After shutting its borders early in the pandemic, New Zealand has reported just 4,409 Covid-19 infections and 27 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University -- among the lowest case numbers of any country.

But an outbreak in August, sparked by the Delta strain, plunged the major city of Auckland into a long lockdown.

And despite the city enduring more than six weeks of restrictions on movement, New Zealand has reported 24 new cases in the community with the majority found in Auckland.

Ardern says while the transition to living with the virus was always a move New Zealand was going to make, the Delta variant had "accelerated" the change.

She didn't say exactly when the transition from the zero-Covid strategy would begin, but she emphasized the country was "not there yet."

[Source: CNN]