As Omicron rages around the world, Ardern deploys an old tactic - delay

Jacinda Ardern says Omicron is knocking at our door' as the prime minister faces criticism over gaps in preparations for a Covid wave

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In her first press conference of the year, held outside in the central North Island sun, prime minister Jacinda Ardern was almost drowned out by a wave of cicada calls.

The clamour is synonymous with New Zealand summertime, a reminder that the country had managed to snatch a long, hot, largely unrestricted holiday season from the mouth of a late-2021 Delta outbreak.