How did New Zealand become Covid-19 free?

BBC News ^ | 9 July 2020 | Anna Jones

[MinorityRepublican]

In late June, two cases of coronavirus were confirmed in New Zealand.

When many countries are registering thousands of cases a day, two seems little to worry about.

But until that point, New Zealand had gone 24 days without a single case, so these - linked to quarantine breaches - were enough to lead to the resignation of the health minister.

So what was the strategy behind New Zealand's Covid-19 success?

When did New Zealand bring in border closures? On 2 February, a man in the Philippines became the first person outside China to die of Covid-19.

At this point, there were no reported cases in New Zealand, but the next day, the country began banning entry to any foreigner coming from or via China. Any New Zealander returning from China had to isolate for 14 days.

As the virus spread globally, a flight ban was also extended to Iran - the origin of New Zealand's first case - and restrictions placed on anyone arriving from South Korea, northern Italy, or who was showing symptoms.

As of midnight on 16 March, everybody - including New Zealanders - had to go into self-isolation on arrival in the country, unless they were coming from the largely unaffected Pacific island nations.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said these were the strictest regulations in the world, for which she would "make no apologies".

Then, a few days later, Ms Ardern took the unprecedented step of closing the borders entirely to almost all non-citizens or residents.

"Doing this early on with only over a few thousand cases [worldwide] at the time allowed them to basically stop the influx and stop the community transmission," Prof Martin Berka, an economist at the country's Massey University, told the BBC.

[Morpheus2009]

Ping

[SkyDancer]

Their media quit reporting it?

[ealgeone]

Fairly easy to isolate a rather insignificant island.

Not so with the world's superpower.

[Paladin2]

Won’t they have to open someday?

[OttawaFreeper]

“At this point, there were no reported cases in New Zealand, but the next day, the country began banning entry to any foreigner coming from or via China. Any New Zealander returning from China had to isolate for 14 days.

As the virus spread globally, a flight ban was also extended to Iran - the origin of New Zealand’s first case”

Well, we know up here if the U.S. or Canadian government did those things, they’d be accused of being “RAAACIST”.

[MinorityRepublican]

Won’t they have to open someday?

Nah, they won't. They would rather remain isolated. I think it's not worth the economic hit but it's their choice to make.

[blueunicorn6]

Hobbits are immune.

[MinorityRepublican]

Fairly easy to isolate a rather insignificant island.

BINGO.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Institute a lockdown worthy of East Germany in Honecker’s heyday, then get a compliant left-wing press which refuses to report on the negative effects of lockdowns, including the number of lives lost due to the lockdowns, and you can win re-election if your nation has a sufficient number of sheep as voters. That’s what New Zealand’s PM just did, and the sheep apparently couldn’t be happier.

[Dahoser]

New Zealand is not Covid free. Low, yes, not free of it. So tired of people pointing to this small, isolated island nation as some sort of disease-free nirvana that we should emulate.

[pepsionice]

Tourism angle was the money-maker (especially the south island). Damaged a fair number of the hotels and tourism operations. From my 2018 trip there, surprised at level of Chinese tourists...probably a thousand a day flying into Christchurch.

[MinorityRepublican]

Institute a lockdown worthy of East Germany in Honecker’s heyday, then get a compliant left-wing press which refuses to report on the negative effects of lockdowns, including the number of lives lost due to the lockdowns, and you can win re-election if your nation has a sufficient number of sheep as voters. That’s what New Zealand’s PM just did, and the sheep apparently couldn’t be happier.

Yep. The Left is trying to turn USA into New Zealand. One party state. Conservatives will be arrested as enemies of state. Hate speech is banned. Dangerous firearms confiscated.

[Katya]

she was lucky that she represented a left of center govt. The screams of xenophobia were immediately muffled.

[Huskrrrr]

Look out, disgruntled Americans are filing for visas at a record pace.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Zero cases of COVID-19 in Antarctica: How they did it.

[null and void]

When Trump banned travel from China, biden declared him a racist and a xenophobe, just like his Chinese masters told him to...

[null and void]

Institute a lockdown worthy of East Germany in Honecker’s heyday, then get a compliant left-wing press which refuses to report on the negative effects of lockdowns, including the number of lives lost due to the lockdowns, and you can win re-election if your nation has a sufficient number of sheep as voters. That’s what New Zealand’s PM just did, and the sheep apparently couldn’t be happier.

The government wants to disarm us after 244 yrs 'cuz they plan to do things we would shoot them for!

At no point in history has any government ever wanted its people to be defenseless for any good reason ~ nully's son

The biggest killer of mankind

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...

[napscoordinator]

They just elected a bunch of lefties. We will see how they do a year from now.

[DoodleBob]

I sort of covered this a week ago on this thread linking GDP and COVID19 fatalities.

Yes, NZ's population-adjusted fatality total of 1,391 in the second quarter was quite low. But NZ's economy contracted 12.2% in that quarter. Thus, NZ surrendered financial health and civil rights for low pandemic fatalities.

Or did they? Based on the trend line, if NZ's economy fell 12.2%, then there should have been over 950 fatalities (i.e. 65k size-adj fatalities that equate to about 950 fatalities for NZ's population) versus the 21 fatalities they posted.

Maybe NZ suppressed their numbers, like China?