Why New Zealand wants to stick to COVID-zero strategy despite Delta surge?

New Zealand
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has defended her administration’s “COVID zero”
strategy amid concerns that the highly-transmissible Delta variant cannot be
dealt with the elimination strategy. Ardern’s defense came after one COVID-19
case was reported in Auckland last week after nearly six months of no local
transmission. New Zealand was one of the world’s last COVID-free zones.

That one COVID-19
infection has since ballooned into the largest disease cluster New Zealand has
recorded in course of the entire pandemic, with 277 cases. Despite the high-transmissibility
of the variant, the New Zealand prime minister believes that the Delta strain
too can be stamped out like New Zealand did the original strain. She added that
experts and health officials in New Zealand have advised her to stick to the
approach.

Also Read | What is the zero-COVID approach why is it a failure?

“In their
view, it’s not only possible, it remains the best strategy and I totally agree
with it,” Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday. Strongly defending the strategy, the
New Zealand prime minister reminded that the country of 5 million people had
seen only 26 deaths during the pandemic.

According
to Ardern, the change in strategy in light of the Delta variant spreading the
disease entails quicker and more effective national lockdowns. She added that
New Zealand could examine alternative policies too when vaccination rates
improve. New Zealand currently has among the lowest vaccination rates in the
world with less than 20% of the population inoculated.  

But despite
the New Zealand prime minister’s expression of confidence, her Australian
counterpart Scott Morrison disagrees. Earlier this week, Scott Morrison said that
it was “just absurd” to try to eliminate Delta, adding: “New Zealand can’t do that”.

Scott
Morrison’s administration too attempted the COVID zero strategy for 18 months
in Australia, but big Delta variant outbreaks in several parts of the country
has forced officials to attempt a more containment-centric policy.

Australia is
seeing severe COVID-19 outbreaks over the last month. Hospitals in Sydney are
close to full and have had to set up emergency tents. The lockdowns have had a
severe impact on people’s livelihoods and anti-lockdown protests have broken
out in several regions of the country.