[blackwasp]

Final score: New Zealand on Monday declared itself free of Covid-19, with the last of the infected persons having recovered, prompting, as the country's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern admitted, a little jig by her with her two year old daughter. The final tally: 1,504 cases and 22 deaths. The country of 5 million has not reported a fresh case for the last 17 days and except for keeping its borders closed, all remaining restrictions were lifted from midnight last night.

Different story: The country, which incidentally went into a lockdown on the same day as India did — March 25 — had set up a four-stage alert system, opting to go straight into level 4, which lasted over five weeks during which, only trips to local stores for groceries and morning walks were allowed, with all schools and most offices as well as businesses shut. It gradually moved to level three in April, allowing takeaway food and some non-essential businesses to open. In mid-May, it moved to level two and is now at level one — two weeks ahead of schedule.

What now: Well, life will be back to normal, which means while social distancing is no longer mandatory, it will be encouraged. Plus, restaurants and hotels can now function as usual, while weddings, funerals and public transport don't have any restrictions. However, those New Zealanders coming home from abroad will need to be quarantined for 14 days on arrival.

Source


Some highlights by PM Jacinda Ardern:

• No active cases
• 40,000 people tested for Covid-19 in past 17 days and none have tested positive
• No one in hospital for Covid-19 since 12 days
• 40 days since the last community transmission, and 22 days since that person finished their self-isolation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFHBqiVRzl4

[fhdowntheline]

Guys, while New Zealand is well celebrated, somehow we do not talk about Namibia. A country which just has 31 cases overall. Its a large country, much larger than NZ, and certainly not financially wealthy.

https://www.worldometers.info/corona...untry/namibia/

[Shreyans_Jain]

Women like her should be running this world.


NZ went into lockdown when we went in lockdown. We stare at a healthcare and an economic catastrophe, while they are out of the woods and back to normal life. So much for our young and energetic population which is supposed to be less at risk from COVID19.

[V.Narayan]

We must admire what they have achieved and that too in a remarkable short time. Good for them. Some may say, 'oh but their population is smaller than that of Pune' or not having land borders helps or their medical infrastructure is so good {which it is}. But it is easy to forget they invested time in early March to think this through before acting - to think through what was the aim, what cost were they willing to bear, what action will they take and most important of all what tone of communication they will set.

Sadly with our over dramatic "chaar ghante mein desh ko band kar diya" bravodo and misplaced theatrics we pushed the nation with virtually no homework or planning. A District Magistrate I spoke with told me he was informed about the lockdown 2 hours before leaving him no time to prepare and for weeks almost no resources other than what he could garner from within his limited basket and from local factories and institutions.

[bluevolt]

Irrespective of their population - great work!

And not even New Zealand that had declared itself as Covid free, we should acknowledge countries that have a very low number of cases. Though they have the advantage of being a small country in terms of population, still the numbers are really good.

Few countries I would like to highlight - (Source - Bing Covid Tracker)

• Sri Lanka - 1877 (716 active cases)
• Thailand - 3129 (84 active cases)
• Zambia - 1200 (278 active cases)
• Zimbabwe - 332 (277 active cases)

Even Nepal has less than 5k cases, Bhutan just 52 cases!

In no way, I am comparing their population to India but all of these countries are more or less financially weaker than our Country. So please don't quote and argue on terms of population.

[AtheK]

I think this also kind of belongs here.

[DigitalOne]

Kudos to NZ but lets have a sense of proportion. They are an island country with very low population density, a homogeneous, prosperous population.

The below highlighted states all have population more than New Zealand, have open borders with neighboring states, and yet have lesser deaths than NZ.

[ObsessedByFIAT]

No one here seems to be talking about Vietnam!
It shares a long border with China and yet, only 300 odd cases and zero casualties!!

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...HtwjW6&ampcf=1

I would say, New Zealand was placed far better as compared to Vietnam!

[srishiva]

Credit is also due to some places in India who have handled it well. Also, to those other Far east countries in Asia. The socio-economic conditions do matter and also the difference between rich and poor. How else can you explain Maharastra and Gujarat having so many cases ?

[libranof1987]

First of all, let's look at this as a standalone NZ thing, rather than comparing it with other countries. That said, Jacinda Ardern, what a leader! There's not a foot she's put wrong: be it her handling of her personal life as PM, the NZ shootings or this.

I do doubt how long NZ, or any country can remain Corona-free. Once travel is allowed, unless there is a strict isolation and quarantine at the airport itself, the likelihood of the virus getting into the country is not undeniable. Being an island obviously helps since there's only one port of entry: airports.

[Storm2.0]

Lol. When media and PR agencies are at full swing they can even declare Somalia or Syria best places to live in.
With a population of ONLY 48 lakhs (that to mostly literates and financially better off) it's not a big feat that she has achieved.

I'm aghast to see the hypocrisy of people. They turn blind selectively to issues they don't want to see (Ostrich like dodging you see) eg: A relatively less advertised Vietnam with only 300 cases of COVID19 as someone pointed out, did anyone even take time to bombard Linkedin/ Fb to congratulate them, answer is NO.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Storm2.0

Lol. When media and PR agencies are at full swing they can even declare Somalia or Syria best places to live in.
With a population of ONLY 48 lakhs (that to mostly literates and financially better off) it's not a big feat that she has achieved.

I'm aghast to see the hypocrisy of people. They turn blind selectively to issues they don't want to see (Ostrich like dodging you see) eg: A relatively less advertised Vietnam with only 300 cases of COVID19 as someone pointed out, did anyone even take time to bombard Linkedin/ Fb to congratulate them, answer is NO.

You can use this page to compliment Vietnam or any other country that has done well. That is positive use of social media. Give praise where deserving. But why do we have to run down some other countries achievement {NZ in this case} to make our point. That unfortunately is the way people see social media -- as an instrument to attack rather than a tool to build. When you say that stopping a pandemic amongst 48 lakhs is no big deal it indicates lack of administrative experience and an understanding of what it takes to get something done. Why is praising NZ a hypocrisy. Has anyone stopped the media or Vietnam {a country I love BTW} or you from praising Vietnam on Namibia or any other nation that has also done well. Where is the need for anger and scorn.

[landcruiser123]

While the COVID-19 is a pandemic that has been pretty crazy, NZ seems have done a great job in arresting and controlling the spread of the pandemic. Will be interesting to see how countries like NZ open up to tourism.

Originally Posted by Storm2.0

With a population of ONLY 48 lakhs (that to mostly literates and financially better off) it's not a big feat that she has achieved.

While NZ might not face the problem of the population of India, I don't think its fair to be critical about their achievements. Instead, public officials in the rest of the world must take this opportunity to learn about the measures NZ has taken to tackle this pandemic and apply them appropriately in their own countries.

Many countries which have small populations and are terminal destinations might not be affected like the hot spots like USA, Europe or India.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by Storm2.0

I'm aghast to see the hypocrisy of people. They turn blind selectively to issues they don't want to see (Ostrich like dodging you see).

Let's give credit where it is due and avoid making comparisons. The context is very different in each country, heck for that matter it's very different in most of the states and cities in India!

To a large extent, we're now past the phase where we can expect the governments and administrative machinery alone to take responsibility in controlling the spread of this virus. At this point, every single individual now needs to take abundant precautions, lesser risk (easier said than done for many people in our country due to nature of jobs and survival in general) and also pray that luck is on their side.

[Sutripta]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Give praise where deserving. But why do we have to run down some other countries achievement {NZ in this case} to make our point.

Not being able to give praise (from the heart) is a sign of insecurity. Of lack of confidence.* Of fear that we shall always not quite measure up. Self fulfilling.

And sir, have you noticed something else also. Our never ending excuses couched in scorn for others.
China can, we can't because ... (Normally totalitarian state vs democracy)
Any other country on anything, not us because ... (usually we are too big etc).

So where are our solutions for our needs? I refuse to believe we are that incapable.

* Bravado/ jingoism is not confidence.

Sutripta