New Zealand: Delta strain like 'a whole new virus' as cases rise

[Klaralven]

New Zealand has recorded 41 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of infections in the country to 148, the Director-General of Health Chief Ashley Bloomfield said as she declared that containing the spread of the Delta variant is “like dealing with a whole new virus”.

Of the new cases, 38 are in Auckland and three in the capital Wellington, Bloomfield said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The youngest case is reportedly an infant.

The majority of confirmed cases in the outbreak are of Samoan ethnicity linked to the Samoan Assembly Of God Church.

According to reports, there are 58 confirmed cases linked to the church. This included both people at the service and household close contacts.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/24/nz-warns-delta-variant-like-a-whole-new-virus-as-cases-rise

[nitpicker]

1. That reminds me of the start of the South Korean outbreak

When a lot of people went to the funeral of a SK church head's relative and spread it back to their communities.

[Klaralven]

3. Probably the same phenomenon of religious people refusing to stop congregating

[Hugin]

2. I wonder what the criteria would be to call Delta a pandemic of it's own.

If not a whole (admittedly, not 'novel') different disease than the COVID-19 virus.