The secret to the success of New Zealand in fighting the COVID Pandemic.

For months now the world is living in a horrible Nightmarish situation. What once seemed like a plot of an apocalypse movie, is now the living reality. The visuals of hospitals in Italy and the increasing number of deaths in the US will remain etched to our memory forever haunting us. At this point in time, the news of success against the seemingly invincible coronavirus from the small island country of New Zealand is a fresh breather. On 27th May, the last person hospitalized with coronavirus was discharged. There have been no new cases reported for 6 days and the number of active cases stands at 1 and the total death toll at 21. This paints an image of victory and elation. One might wonder what was their action plan, That fruited into these amazing results. New Zealand had a prompt and possibly one of the earliest responses to the COVID crisis. It started with travel restrictions with China back in February before any positive patient was even detected. New Zealand saw it's first Corona positive patient on 28 February. After which it closed its borders for everyone and those returning from foreign countries were self-isolated. On 21st March it announced a level-based system to deal with the crisis. The country entered level 4 on 25 March which led to a nationwide lockdown. Schools were closed, offices were running from home all at a time when it had a little over 100 cases, these measures seemed draconian at first, but as defended by the prime minister “We only have 102 cases, But so did Italy once.” These early measures gave New Zealand a headstart when other countries were still waiting for things to go out of proportion and imposing lockdown when absolutely necessary. The pandemic peaked in April then slowing down eventually. The lockdown eased slowly to level 3 on 27 and completely lifted on 13 May. It's the strategy of the test! Test! Test! And tracing tracked cases efficiently It followed the mantra of mass testing as well as to locate coronavirus patients and follow their trail to check for whatever community transmission took place. With its capacity to test 8000 people in a day, it tested a total of 126,000 for a mere population of 48 lakhs, for comparison that's exactly the population of Surat! It also used a specially designed app to keep a track of places visited by corona positive patients before they were isolated. With the NZ COVID tracer app, the government kept a digital diary of movements of people, they were asked to scan a barcode outside all public places. It was used to inform all places visited by someone suffering from the pandemic and use this to track any transmissions. This way their approach is different from that of a general mitigation strategy followed by most countries when dealing with any disease outbreak or epidemic situation. Their carefully crafted elimination plan worked well and results speak for themselves. Clear communication on part of leadership For the citizens to oblige and follow orders, a leader must be an excellent communicator, it must be trusted enough by the public and there should be transparency about the dealing of the government. While there are countries like Hungary where the leaders took advantage of the COVID pandemic to exploit their powers into dictatorship like a rule. And other esteemed European countries who were once considered the model of development were all victims to the follies of their leaders, NZ had a leader who knew how to take charge. Situations like this are a real test of a leader, Jacinda Ardern has passed with flying colors. All instructions of lockdown were announced by the PM before it was announced, there were clear press briefings. People knew what was happening. She also gave a fair warning beforehand that the situation will get worse before it gets better rather than letting people live in the dark that everything will be fine in a few days. She didn't spread any misinformation nor did she play the blame game. She wasn't just all words no action like Modi, her empathic words were backed by the concrete policy for economic stimulus, job creation, helping students with online education, amping up healthcare facilities all while sitting in her worn-out pajamas on video calls. Dealing with economic after effects To tide over such a crisis you don't just need internal resilience, you need financial security. People are highly unlikely to follow lockdown rules if they aren't sure of their next meal or feel economically safe. ASB and ANZ banks both expect the country's economy to contract by around 6% this year as a result of the pandemic, as told by the New Zealand Herald report. A tax refund package was announced to deal with this that will see over 3 billion New Zealand dollars ($1.8 billion) refunded to small businesses, apart from that Ardern along with her entire cabinet and all public executives took a 20% pay cut. The total fiscal stimulus stood at 4% of GDP. Other than that money will go toward health costs, income support, and the airline industry. Lastly Geographic advantage: New Zealand as noted earlier is sparsely populated. Its population is just approx 5 million. There are Indian cities with triple the population. It's an island country and enjoys the advantage of being physically cut off from the rest of the world. One can contribute a huge chunk of its success to such demographic factors too.

The secret to the success of New Zealand in fighting the COVID Pandemic.

For months now the world is living in a horrible Nightmarish situation. What once seemed like a plot of an apocalypse movie, is now the living reality. The visuals of hospitals in Italy and the increasing number of deaths in the US will remain etched to our memory forever haunting us.

At this point in time, the news of success against the seemingly invincible coronavirus from the small island country of New Zealand is a fresh breather.

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For months now the world is living in a horrible Nightmarish situation. What once seemed like a plot of an apocalypse movie, is now the living reality. The visuals of hospitals in Italy and the increasing number of deaths in the US will remain etched to our memory forever haunting us.

At this point in time, the news of success against the seemingly invincible coronavirus from the small island country of New Zealand is a fresh breather.

Read Next

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PM Narendra Modi ‘directs’ ISRO to land man on moon by 2040

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