New Zealand may not get back to having zero coronavirus cases in the community, the director general of health has said, as the country continues efforts to stamp out the infectious Delta variant of the virus, reports Reuters.

New Zealand eliminated COVID-19 last year and had been largely virus-free, barring a small number of cases in February, until the latest outbreak of the Delta variant erupted in August, prompting Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to order a nationwide lockdown.

“We may not get back to zero but the important thing is we are going to keep finding any infections and basically continue to contact trace, test and isolate people so that we stop the virus circulating in the community... that's the aim,” Ashley Bloomfield, the director general of health told Radio New Zealand.

Bloomfield said the aim now was to try and get on top of the outbreak while also ramping up vaccination rates.

“Get that vaccination rate up over 90 per cent ... that's absolutely our new means whereby we will be able to get back to the freedoms we had,” he said.