How New Zealand's successful battle against COVID-19 may help us

New Zealand recorded 1,504 confirmed and probable infections and 22 deaths. It was June 8 when New Zealand announced that its last person known to be infected with coronavirus disease 2019 has recovered. It means that New Zealand has eliminated the virus.

Photo credit: axios.com

Other countries with smaller populations have reportedly also stopped transmission of the disease, including Fiji and Montenegro. Several other nations, including Iceland and Taiwan, have recently brought the number of active cases of COVID-19 to nearly zero.

One of the reasons for New Zealand’s success lies in its small size and isolated location. More importantly, though, New Zealand reacted relatively fast after confirming its first case on February 28.

Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand announced on March 14 that anyone entering the country would need to self isolate for two weeks, it was among the toughest border restrictions in the world. At the time, the country had six cases.

On March 19, Ardern banned foreigners from entering the country, there were 28 confirmed cases.

And on March 23, when Ardern announced that the country was going into lockdown, there were 102 confirmed cases -- and no deaths.

New Zealand build up widespread diagnostic testing early, created a meticulous nationwide contact tracing system, called for a strict stay-at-home order, and closed its borders while the number of confirmed cases was still very low, Katz notes. As a result, it managed to avoid the explosive epidemics seen in other parts of the world.

New Zealand’s milestone offers a glimmer of hope for other countries where in the rate of new cases of COVID-19 is still rising. It indicates that a combination of social distancing, testing and contact-tracing, and clear communication can have a huge impact on winning against the virus. While it’s far too late to prevent COVID-19 from gaining better results in severely affected countries, we can still learn from New Zealand’s coordinated and aggressive response.

“The country enacted a shutdown early enough so that a large body of community transmission did not have time to become established,” says William Hanage, epidemiologist in the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. 

The government of New Zealand also made an effort to unify people and make sure they understood what to expect when the country went into lockdown. “They had one of the world’s finest communicators in [Prime Minister] Jacinda Ardern, who explained clearly and frequently what was happening and why,” Yamey says. “She made people feel that they were part of a communal effort to care for each other. She promoted solidarity.”

During a news conference, Ardern acknowledged that it’s fairly certain that the country will eventually see more new cases of COVID-19. “Elimination is not a point in time,” she said. “It is a sustained effort.” 

New Zealand has relaxed all its restrictions on events, restaurants, public transport, and other services, its borders will remain closed for the foreseeable future to everyone except residents and their immediate families.