Delta variant

Eight people are reported by health authorities to have died from COVID in Western Province in the past week.

The National Pandemic Response deputy controller Dr Daoni Esorom said the deaths were highly likely to be Delta-variant-related.

Western is one of PNG's most remote provinces and one of two that share a border with Indonesia's West Papua region. The porous border is difficult to secure, and many traditional border crossers travel back and forth.

COVID-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said the variant "changes the game considerably" and makes existing protections "look less adequate".

It comes as the country announced a further 21 confirmed cases in the latest outbreak of the virus.

New Zealand had quashed earlier COVID outbreaks with rapid, strict lockdowns.

The country was praised for its efforts, which effectively stopped the spread of the virus. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has repeatedly referred to New Zealand as "our team of five million".

Jacinda Ardern said that genome sequencing has detected the Delta strain, and that it originated in NSW.

"We are dealing with the Delta variant ... our case has originated in Australia."

"Now the job is to work out how and when it got here,” Ms Ardern said.

The NZ Government will examine whether the positive case leaked from one of the country's managed isolation facilities

New Zealand has detected an additional two COVID cases, bringing the total in the current outbreak to seven.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told RNZ's Morning Report one of the new cases is a nurse at Auckland Hospital.

"The health workforce are very well versed and mapping these issues and have done in the past.

We have had COVID-positive cases in our health workforce before. What's different on this occasion is that we have this individual who is fully vaccinated."

Ardern said the four new cases were the workmate of the 58-year-old Devonport man and the workmate's close or household contacts.

One of those people travelling from Moscow had the Delta variant of COVID-19. After they left the plane, staff from the Nanjing Lukou airport swooped in to pick up their rubbish.

According to Chinese officials, when those cleaners exited the aircraft they brought the virus along with them to the outside world - sparking what has now become China's widest outbreak since Wuhan.

In the last few weeks, at the height of the summer travel season, Delta has been detected in at least 16 Chinese provinces and municipalities. Most cases are linked to Nanjing.

A sufficient percentage of Americans have now been vaccinated to avoid lockdowns, Fauci said on ABC's "This Week".

"Not enough to crush the outbreak, but I believe enough to not allow us to get into the situation we were in last winter," he said.

The average number of new coronavirus cases reported nationwide has nearly doubled in the past 10 days, according to a Reuters analysis.

Even if states do not resort to lockdowns again, the spread of the Delta variant could still threaten the economy.

The city is battling to contain an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.

Officials reported 17 new cases on Friday, taking the cluster to 65 cases.

It is the first lockdown in Australia's largest city - home to 5.3 million people - this year.

It will affect the city centre, inner-city suburbs, as well as beachside suburbs in the east.

"We don't want to see this situation linger for weeks. We would like to see this situation end sooner rather than later," said New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian.