Omicron spreads in New Zealand, spoiling PM’s wedding plans

WELLINGTON – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is suspending her wedding ceremony after asserting new COVID-19 restrictions Sunday following the invention of 9 instances of the omicron variant in a single household that flew to Auckland for his or her wedding ceremony.

The so-called “pink setting” of the nation’s pandemic response consists of heightened measures similar to required masks sporting and limits on gatherings. The restrictions will go into impact on Monday.

Ardern confused that “pink shouldn’t be lockdown,” noting that companies can stay open and folks can nonetheless go to household and associates and transfer freely across the nation.

“Our plan for managing omicron instances within the early stage stays the identical as delta, the place we’ll quickly take a look at, contact hint and isolate instances and contacts so as to sluggish the unfold,” Ardern advised reporters.

However her personal wedding ceremony plans are on maintain.

The 41-year-old prime minister was planning to tie the knot subsequent weekend.

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“I simply be a part of many different New Zealanders who’ve had an expertise like that because of the pandemic and to anybody who’s caught up in that state of affairs, I’m so sorry,” she mentioned.

New Zealand had been among the many few remaining nations to have averted any outbreaks of the omicron variant, however Ardern acknowledged final week that an outbreak was inevitable given the excessive transmissibility of the variant.

The nation has managed to include the unfold of the delta variant, with a mean of about 20 new instances every day. It has seen an rising variety of individuals arriving into the nation and going into obligatory quarantine who’re contaminated with omicron.

That has put pressure on the quarantine system and prompted the federal government to restrict entry for returning residents whereas it decides what to do about reopening its borders, angering many individuals who wish to return to New Zealand.

About 93% of New Zealanders aged 12 and over are totally vaccinated, and 52% have had a booster shot. The nation has simply begun vaccinating kids aged between 5 and 11.

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The household from the Nelson-Marlborough area attended a marriage and different occasions whereas in Auckland earlier this month, with estimates suggesting they got here into contact with “properly over 100 individuals at these occasions,” Ardern mentioned.

“That implies that omicron is now circulating in Auckland and probably the Nelson-Marlborough area if not elsewhere,” she added.

Ardern plans to marry her longtime accomplice, Clarke Gayford. They’ve a 2-year-old daughter, Neve.

Ardern in 2018 turned simply the second elected world chief in fashionable historical past to provide start whereas holding workplace.