New Zealand will enter a snap nationwide lockdown at its highest level on Tuesday night after a 58-year-old man from Auckland tested positive for COVID-19, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced.
Why it matters: This is the first coronavirus case detected in NZ's community for 170 days. Ardern noted at a news conference Tuesday that although it was unknown what strain of the virus the man had, most of the infections in managed hotel quarantine had the highly contagious Delta variant.
- The level 4 national lockdown will last for three days, but Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula, which the man visited, will likely experience this for seven days.
- New Zealand has only experienced a level 4 lockdown once before.