WELLINGTON -- New Zealand prided itself on being a model for beating COVID-19 but is now grappling with a new delta-variant-fueled outbreak that has prompted a return to some of the world's strictest lockdown rules, shuttering swaths of the economy.
By Friday, the number of community cases in the outbreak had risen to 347, up a record 70 from a day earlier -- modest numbers by global standards, but alarming for New Zealand. Apart from 14 infections in the capital Wellington, all were in the largest city, Auckland.
