JAKARTA - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged New Zealanders on Friday to adhere to her strategy of eradicating the fast-spreading variant of Delta as she extended a strict lockdown amid a spike in infections.

Ardern's critics have questioned whether she can repeat last year's feat of nearly eradicating COVID-19, as her government struggled to get the population vaccinated against the more contagious Delta variant.

"We have been here before. We know the elimination strategy worked," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference.

"Cases increase and then decrease until we don't have them. It's tried and true, we just have to hold on," said PM Ardern.

PM Ardern extended a lockdown for a population of 5.1 million people until midnight on Tuesday, as the outbreak extended beyond the largest city, Auckland, to the capital, Wellington.

Friday's 11 new cases, three in Wellington, brings New Zealand's infection tally to 31. Wellington's COVID-19 cases have recently traveled to Auckland, visiting locations identified as having been exposed to the outbreak.

"We just don't know the full scale of this Delta variant outbreak. We want the whole country on high alert right now," said PM Ardern.

Separately, Chief Health Ashley Bloomfield warned, the lockdown at the center of the Auckland outbreak could be extended further.

PM Ardern's harsh lockdown and closure of international borders in March 2020 helped control COVID-19. But the government now faces questions about delayed vaccine rollouts, as well as rising costs in a country that relies heavily on immigrant labor.

To note, only about 19 percent of New Zealand's population has received the COVID-19 vaccine, out of the total population, making New Zealand the slowest COVID-19 vaccination rate among the rich countries of the OECD grouping.

New Zealanders had been living virus-free and without restrictions until PM Ardern on Tuesday ordered a quick 3-day nationwide lockdown, with a seven-day shutdown for Auckland, following the discovery of the first cases since February.


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