Australia is raving about New Zealand's battle against the Delta variant.
An article published by news.com.au titled 'How New Zealand has succeeded against the Delta variant' praises how New Zealand has remained relatively COVID-free since the pandemic began in March 2020.
"In New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern had largely managed to keep the virus at bay. Shutting the nation's border in mid-March last year, the Prime Minister introduced compulsory quarantine for all returnees and instituted a series of strict lockdowns to stamp out existing clusters," the article states.
"It turns out that against all odds they may well beat Delta, or at least keep it in check with low numbers. After peaking at 83 cases on August 28, cases have been steadily tracking down, with modellers predicting they should hit single digits in the coming weeks."
Our success has been put down to three main reasons that have seen New Zealand's response be significantly more successful than that in Sydney.
The first is an "unwavering political commitment to an elimination strategy from the beginning, though now there's a plan to transition to a 'reconnecting' strategy once we have high [90 percent] vaccine coverage," Professor Michael Baker told news.com.au.
The second was officials' "use of the 'go-early go-hard' approach when there is evidence of transmission in the community," he said. "This means rapidly moving to the most stringent lockdown level - alert level 4 - if ongoing transmission is detected."
The final reason, he said, was the "very effective public engagement with the elimination strategy and what is required".
News.com.au isn't the only one to praise our approach. The New York Times described New Zealand as "a global standout at fighting the coronavirus" while Time wrote that "few would quarrel with Ardern's handling of the pandemic", and the Washington Post wrote of New Zealand's "success story, from lockdown to reopening".
Auckland is currently in its longest lockdown since New Zealand was placed in level 4 in March last year.
The Ministry of Health announced 24 new community cases of COVID-19 on Sunday with three of them under investigation and currently unlinked. This has taken the total outbreak to 1050 cases with 688 people recovered including all 17 in Wellington.
Even with cases topping 1000, New Zealand has managed to get the virus under control through tough restrictions.
"Delta has been called a game-changer, and it is. It means we need to again go hard and early to stop the spread," the PM said when announcing the lockdown.
"We have seen what can happen elsewhere if we fail to get on top of it. We only get one chance."
Ardern placed the country into its strictest lockdown, which has seen all shops close except essential services and Kiwis forced to remain in their bubbles.
While New Zealand has managed to get Delta under control, the same can't be said for New South Wales, which is now recording over 1000 cases a day.
The Australian state went into a relaxed form of lockdown that didn't stop transmission and saw the virus spread out of control.
On Sunday, the state recorded a further 1083 cases with 13 deaths, which has taken the total cases in the outbreak amounts to over 50,000.
This has forced New South Wales to rely on high vaccination rates as it looks to get back to normal. On Sunday, New South Wales had hit 81 percent first-dose vaccinations.
Singapore was ready to change strategies from its zero-tolerance approach after vaccinating the majority of its eligible population, and has been forced to reinstate restrictions as the highly infectious Delta variant spread and cases climbed.
