One person shows up to anti-lockdown protest in New Zealand

New Zealand is currently in lockdown due to a recent Covid-19 outbreak.

An anti-lockdown protest organised in New Zealand has been shut down by police, although it wasn't a big job because only one person showed up to the protest. New Zealand police said they were on Queen Street in Auckland on Friday after hearing a protest was being planned for the area, however just one person arrived at the location with the intention of protesting, Newshub reported. “Police have been in the area and have spoken to one person who arrived intending to attend the protest. Police spoke to the individual who was encouraged to comply with alert level four restrictions and chose to leave,” a spokesperson said. The protest was shared through an Instagram page which called on people to see "the bigger picture", although the page denied involvement in the protest. New Zealand recently extended lockdown measures until at least the end of August due to a spread of Delta variant infections even though the prime minister said the latest outbreak is beginning to “plateau”. "We may be seeing the beginning of a plateau in cases," Jacinda Ardern said. "Our job is to keep up the hard work in order to bend, and then flatten, the (infection) curve." The country is at Level 4, the most severe restrictions, and it means people must remain in household bubbles and can leave home only for essential reasons. New Zealand is continuing its zero Covid strategy and will try to eliminate Covid-19 from the country before relaxing its lockdown measures. Prior to this recent outbreak, the strategy - which consisted of strict border controls and hard lockdowns - resulted in just 26 deaths in the country, despite having a population of over five million.