Jacinda Ardern
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared on Monday New Zealand “beat the virus again” and announced restrictions in the country’s largest city Auckland would be eased, as she felt confident that the second wave of the virus had been almost eliminated there.
“There is now a 95-percent probability of the cluster being eliminated,” Ardern said at a news conference.
“It felt longer, and dragged on in what was already starting to feel like a very long year,” she added. “But despite this, Aucklanders and New Zealanders stuck to the plan that has worked twice now, and beat the virus again.”
The city will move to alert level 1 before midnight on Wednesday, joining the rest of the country, with no new cases reported in the Auckland cluster for 10 consecutive days.
“COVID-19 will be with us for many months to come. But we should still mark these milestones,” the prime minister said.
The virus was believed to have been eradicated in late May after a strict national lockdown led to New Zealanders enjoying 102 days without community transmission.
But renewed Auckland outbreak, detected in August, was the biggest the country had seen, with 179 linked cases, and prompted Ardern to reinforce restrictions in Auckland, the city of 1.5 million. Source: https://www.daily-bangladesh.com/
