{"id":33665,"date":"2021-07-03T05:00:33","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T20:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/jul\/03\/last-one-standing-delta-variant-poses-threat-to-new-zealands-covid-free-bubble"},"modified":"2021-07-03T05:00:33","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T20:00:33","slug":"last-one-standing-delta-variant-poses-threat-to-new-zealands-covid-free-bubble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=33665","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Last one standing\u2019: Delta variant poses threat to New Zealand\u2019s Covid-free bubble"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Can New Zealand escape the resurgences that have hit other \u2018elimination success story\u2019 countries?<\/p>\n<p>Last week was a sharp reminder for Dr Siouxsie Wiles, one of New Zealand\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/apr\/01\/siouxsie-wiles-named-new-zealander-of-the-year\"> most prominent pandemic communicators<\/a>, of how close the country\u2019s recent brush with Covid was. A Sydney tourist,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/jun\/23\/wellington-may-face-covid-lockdown-visit-infected-australian-tourist-new-zealand\"> infected with the Delta variant of Covid-19<\/a> had visited more than a dozen busy Wellington cafes, museums and eateries over the course of a weekend. As contact tracers went to work, Wiles\u2019s own phone pinged: she was a potential contact, having stayed, like the tourist, at the Rydges Hotel.<\/p>\n<p>In Wiles\u2019s case, it emerged she had checked in hours after the man had checked out. The rest of the city has also emerged unscathed so far: despite 2,600 contacts identified, no infections have been reported. But the experience brought home once again, Wiles says, what a careful tightrope New Zealand is walking.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/jul\/03\/last-one-standing-delta-variant-poses-threat-to-new-zealands-covid-free-bubble\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can New Zealand escape the resurgences that have hit other \u2018elimination success story\u2019 countries?Last week was a sharp reminder for Dr Siouxsie Wiles, one of New Zealand\u2019s most prominent pandemic communicators, of how close the country\u2019s recent brush w&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,1066,56,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-coronavirus","category-new-zealand","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33666,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33665\/revisions\/33666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}