Daily COVID-19 cases in New Zealand fell on Wednesday after a record jump the day before, with most infections still in Auckland as the Delta variant of the coronavirus continues to affect the country's biggest city.
Authorities reported 60 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, of which 56 were in Auckland, taking the total number of cases in the current outbreak to 2,158. There have been 28 deaths in total since the pandemic began and 43 people are currently hospitalised because of the virus.
New Zealand had stayed largely virus-free for most of the pandemic until the Delta outbreak in mid-August that has spread across Auckland and neighbouring regions, prompting tight restrictions on some 1.7 million Aucklanders that were extended further this week.
Authorities have warned that infections are likely to trend higher until vaccination rates gather more pace. Some 67% of the population is now fully vaccinated, while 85% have received at least one dose.
Auckland has now been locked down for more than two months, though New Zealand's total cumulative load of 4,854 confirmed cases is far lower than many comparable countries.
The government has shifted to a strategy of living with COVID-19, and education minister Chris Hipkins on Wednesday said senior secondary school students in some areas would return to classrooms from next Tuesday.
"This is a complex issue requiring difficult trade-offs between improving education and increasing potential health risks for children and young people," Hipkins said at a news conference.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In BCCI's Strict Rule For Test Selection, Three India Stars Get Exception Sri Lanka, Pakistan Visits Confirmed As New Zealand Reveal Packed Summer Schedule From FLiRT To FLuQE: What To Know About The Latest Covid Variants Massive Worldwide Microsoft Outage: Flights, Markets, Stock Exchange Down CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor: The Culprit Behind World's Biggest IT Outage In 1st Statement After Outage, CrowdStrike CEO Says... Triptii Dimri's Sheer White Dress Only Gave Good News To Fashion Fans "Attack On Constitution": Priyanka Gandhi Hits Out At Kanwar Yatra Order NEET PG Admit Card To Be Out On August 8 Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.