Kiwis are hitting back at British broadcaster Nigel Farage after he slammed Jacinda Ardern for shutting down the country over one COVID-19 case.
New Zealand entered alert level four lockdown on Tuesday night as a precautionary measure following the detection of a positive community coronavirus case - which is the Delta variant.
The cluster has since grown to 21 cases.
During a segment on GB News on Wednesday, Farage ranted with exasperation about his confusion over the lockdown.
"Jacinda Ardern, the recently re-elected Prime Minister of New Zealand, held up by so many in the world to be this wonderful, fantastic, exciting woman... But now what she's done - one case of COVID a 58-year-old man, and she's locking down the country. She's locking down the whole country for three days, including both islands - I mean work that one out - and parts of the country for a full seven days. That means everything is closed, at least that is my understanding of it."
Farage, a former UK politician, questioned "what is going on?"
Kiwis on social media expressed outrage over the clip - emphasising Ardern's decision meant New Zealand only had a handful of deaths compared to the UK.
"Extraordinary clip of Nigel Farage reacting to our lockdown over "only" one COVID case. Deadly transmissible virus? Words he can't understand," one person wrote.
"Born in England, I'm glad and proud to live in New Zealand. If UK had half the brain power and guts Jacinta has, my mum would not be living in fear everyday and turning into an isolated recluse. I trust Jacinda. Hard, fast and live in freedom far quicker than other countries," another wrote.
One person said "One death is too many".
"We value all our citizens. It's hard, but we're prepared. Aroha nui."
A UK resident defended Ardern, commenting: "Well, we lost 150,000 people, they lost 26".
All of New Zealand is currently at alert level four for three days but Auckland and Coromandel are likely to be there for seven days, Ardern said on Tuesday.
