New Coronavirus Outbreak: Electioneering Delayed in New Zealand

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern delayed the country's elections due to the new outbreak of Coronavirus.

The new wage of the disease appeared in the city of Auckland.

The government announced that the elections will be held after four weeks.

The election had been scheduled for September 19 but will now be held on October 17. Opposition parties had sought a delay after the coronavirus outbreak prompted  the government last week to put Auckland under a two-week lockdown and halted election campaigning.

Before the latest outbreak, New Zealand had gone 102 days without any known community transmission of the virus, and life had returned to normal for most people, with restaurants and schools open and sports fans back in stadiums. The only known cases during that time were returning travelers who were quarantined at the border.

All parties suspended the campaign last week due to restrictions ordered to tackle this new epidemic wave, the origin of which remains unknown.

Four first cases within the same family had been spotted at the beginning of the week. It was 58 confirmed cases Monday, including five people who were hospitalized.

The archipelago opted for the same strategy as the one it had followed in the spring, by isolating the positive cases, massively testing the population and tracing the contacts of the infected people.

Officials believe the virus was reintroduced to New Zealand from abroad but haven’t yet determined how.