The spread of Delta, a variant strain of COVID-19, may force Australia and New Zealand to re-examine their anti-epidemic strategy of “zeroing”. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated on Sunday that it is extremely unlikely that Australia will return to “zeroing”. “state.
Morrison’s interview with ABC pointed out that Australia needs to change its strategy at some point. When the eligible population’s vaccination rate reaches 70–80%, the epidemic prevention measures will begin to be lifted. The current focus of the fight against the epidemic should be shifted to the hospitalization rate. Not the number of cases. He emphasized that Australia will not affect the reopening plan due to the increase in cases and will reopen the economy as soon as possible.
According to the New South Wales State Government, there were 830 new cases on Sunday, up from 825 on Saturday, and 3 people died at the same time. In Victoria, 65 new cases were confirmed and 19 cases were confirmed in the Capital Territory. The number of newly confirmed infections reached 914, surpassing 894 on Saturday.
New Zealand Minister of Epidemic Response, Chris Hipkins, pointed out in an interview with New Zealand TV on Sunday that the highly contagious nature of Delta has raised some “quite big” questions about New Zealand’s fight against the epidemic.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia and New Zealand have been insisting on “clearing zeros” and implementing strict restrictions to lock down cities and countries and prevent community transmission. The strategy has prevented the wave of deaths in most other countries. However, the recent spread of Delta poses a challenge to this strategy. Australia reported a new high in the number of daily confirmed infections for the second consecutive day on Sunday, while New Zealand implemented the most stringent city lockdown because of the local confirmed cases last Tuesday. On Sunday, the country reported 21 more locally confirmed cases.
Hipkins described that a virus that can be contagious within 24 hours of infection has indeed “changed the rules of the game.” He pointed out: “New Zealand is fully capable of stopping the epidemic through the fourth-level lockdown, but New Zealand must be prepared. It may not be able to do this every time such a situation occurs.”
Hipkins said that the “zeroing” system worked well before the advent of Delta, but now it doesn’t seem to be robust enough.
The allegations of the Delta outbreak in New Zealand highlighted the slow progress of the country’s vaccination program and triggered public accusations that the government has become lax after its early success in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. Currently, only about 20% of the adult population in New Zealand is fully vaccinated, which is one of the lowest vaccination rates in developed countries.
source:
Bloomberg, AFP
