New Zealand: Delta strain like ‘entirely new virus’ as cases increase | Corona virus pandemic news

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The vast majority of the 41 new confirmed cases in the outbreak belong to the Samoan race associated with the Samoan Assembly of God.

New Zealand has recorded 41 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 148, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said, as she declared that containing the spread of a variable delta is like dealing with a whole new virus.

Of the new cases, 38 are in Auckland and three are in the capital, Wellington, Bloomfield said at a news conference on Tuesday. It was reportedly the youngest case of an infant.

The majority of confirmed cases in the outbreak are of the Samoan race associated with the Samoan Assembly of God.

According to reports, there are 58 confirmed cases linked to the church. This included both people in the service and household acquaintances.

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Bloomfield as saying he spoke with Australian Health Minister Professor Dr Brendan Murphy on Monday about the nature of the delta variable.

He agreed with Murphy that “fighting Delta in the community is like dealing with a whole new virus.”

“This is our experience in New Zealand as well. Delta is different from our previous experience, as it is, as we know, highly contagious and transmissible and, as we have seen, spreads rapidly.”

According to reports, genome sequencing performed in the first case reported in Auckland has been linked to a traveler who returned from Sydney, Australia.

On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered an extension of the country’s lockdown until Friday, when it will be reconsidered based on the emergence of new cases.

However, Ardern said stay-at-home orders in Auckland will remain in place at least until August 31.

“We are still in the midst of this outbreak,” Ardern said Monday.

“We don’t think yet that we have reached the peak or edge of this disease necessarily,” she said at a press conference.

New Zealand’s vaccination program has been slower than many other developed countries despite the recent acceleration. About 32 percent of people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 18 percent have been fully vaccinated.

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