New Zealand set to lift lockdown

New Zealand will mostly lift its Covid-19 lockdown this week, with only the country’s infection epicentre Auckland to remain under strict stay-at-home orders, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday.

About three million New Zealanders will no longer be under stay-at-home orders as of Tuesday overnight, and schools will reopen on Thursday for the first time in three weeks, Ardern said. But she added that Auckland, where the country’s Delta-variant outbreak emerged late last month, will remain in hard lockdown for at least another week.