Covid-19 restrictions in parts of New Zealand will stay in place as the country faces its "trickiest and most challenging" moment of the pandemic, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday.
Auckland, the country's largest city, was put under restrictions after a single case was detected on August 18. The number of cases in the outbreak has now reached 1,573.
The city, as well as neighbouring regions Waikato and Northland, will remain under restrictions for at least three more days, Ardern said.
"Delta is a different and more difficult opponent," she said. "We need to maintain restrictions to stop the virus spreading."
Ardern said plans to reopen schools in Auckland on October 18 would not be going ahead, as more safety measures to allow children to return to classrooms were needed first.
The government also announced it would mandate coronavirus vaccinations for the education, health and disability sectors, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said.
"While most people working in these sectors are already fully or partially vaccinated, we can't leave anything to chance and are making it mandatory."
Weekly testing would be required until those workers could be vaccinated, Hipkins said. "It's not an easy decision, but we need the people who work with vulnerable communities who haven't yet been vaccinated to take this extra step."
Hipkins said the country needed as many workers as possible to be vaccinated to allow sectors to deliver everyday services with as little disruption as possible.
"A high rate of vaccinations will help to protect staff from getting sick and passing COVID-19 onto loved ones. It will also reassure those who are anxious about their children attending school and early learning services."
About 48 per cent of the country's population is fully vaccinated.
Ardern said New Zealand would be in a "disastrous position" if vaccination rates did not rise across the country.
"This is not a city problem, we have to make sure that nowhere in New Zealand considers that Delta and this outbreak is only an issue for Auckland."
She said the government was "aspiring" to reach 90 per cent coverage.
Ardern has not set a firm target on what percentage of the population would need to be fully vaccinated before restrictions can be permanently lifted.
She recently said the country was transitioning away from the elimination strategy it has followed for much of the pandemic, but has not set out a clear path towards living with Covid-19.
With a population of 5 million, New Zealand has reported 4,300 cases of Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic with 28 deaths.
