New Zealand yesterday abandoned its long-standing strategy of eliminating COVID-19 amid a persistent outbreak of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, and will instead look to live with the virus and control its spread as its vaccination rate rises. The Pacific nation was among just a handful of nations to bring COVID-19 cases down to zero last year and largely stayed free of the virus until an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant in mid-August frustrated efforts to stamp out transmission.…