New Zealand extends lockdown and suspends Parliament

New Zealand has again extended national lock down until at least Friday, with Auckland on high alert until the end of the month

New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern said, “the decisions that we’ve made today you can see, we are still very much in the thick of this outbreak”.

“We don’t yet believe we’ve reached the peak of this outbreak or necessarily the edges of it.”

NZ has recorded 35 new cases of Covid-19 today, bringing the Delta outbreak to a total of 107.

Officials have linked 72 of these cases to other identified infected members of the community. 33 of the new cases are in Auckland and two are in Wellington.

However, this leaves a remaining 35 mystery cases that are yet to be linked to any confirmed infectious person.

The outbreak follows an infected traveller from Australia visiting New Zealand.

Ardern has also suspended parliament for the next week.

Of the 107 cases, 72 are already linked to other community cases identified in the outbreak. The Ministry of Health said that 33 of the new cases are in Auckland and two are in Wellington.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said: “it’s not unexpected to see a rise in daily case numbers at this stage”.