Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand has 'won battle' against Covid-19 as it eases lockdown restrictions

New Zealand moves to ease strict lockdown measures after successfully containing coronavirus outbreak
David Child8 June 2020

New Zealand is preparing to ease strict lockdown rules put in place to limit the spread of coronavirus after successfully limiting its rate of community transmission.​

The country reported five new Covid-19 cases on Monday, the latest in a string of several days during which reported cases hovered in single figures.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the country has so far managed to avoid the worst scenarios for an outbreak and would continue to hunt down the last few cases.

“There is no widespread undetected community transmission in New Zealand," she said at the Government's daily press briefing.

"We have won that battle. But we must remain vigilant if we are to keep it that way."

From midnight on Monday, some-non essential businesses, healthcare, and education activity will be able to resume as New Zealand lifts its level-4 lockdown, which has been in place for more than four weeks.

Strict social distancing rules will remain in force, however, and most people will still be required to remain in their homes.

New Zealand moved quickly to roll out stringent restrictions on travel and social activity early on in the coronavirus pandemic
Getty Images

New Zealanders are being told to keep to their "bubble" - meaning a small collection of relatives, or close friends - and to ensure they remain 2m apart from all people outside of those groups.

"We are opening up the economy, but we're not opening up people's social lives," Ms Ardern said.

The prime minister added that New Zealand would remain on a level-3 lockdown for a fortnight before officials decided on whether to transition to level 2.

“We can only do this if we continue to pull together," she said. "If we need to stay at level 3 [for longer] we will.”

“To succeed we must hunt down the last few cases of the virus,” Ms Ardern added. “This is like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

Elsewhere, South Korea is meanwhile looking at reopening schools as the number of cases begins to tail off there.

Authorities reported 10 new cases on Monday, the 26th straight day where this number has been in double figures.

Using an active test-and-quarantine program, South Korea has so far managed to slow its outbreak without imposing lockdowns or business bans.

However, schools have been closed and remote-learning programmes set up in their place.

Prime Minster Chung Sye-kyun instructed education officials to prepare measures to ensure hygiene and enforce distance between students at schools so the government could announce a timeline for reopening schools no later than early May.

China has also appeared to make continued progress against the outbreak, with authorities there reporting three new cases on Monday.

Of the new cases, two were imported and one was detected in the province of Heilongjiang bordering Russia, according to the National Health Commission.

The country has now gone 12 days without recording a death relating to Covid-19, which first originated in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Province, in December last year.

China's death toll from the pandemic now stands at 4,633, from 82,830 recorded cases.

How Europe is adapting to the Coronavirus lockdown

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In Spain, the nation let children go outside for the first time in six weeks, with many other European countries reopening factories and construction sites.

In the US, governors in states including hard-hit New York and Michigan are keeping stay-at-home restrictions in place until at least mid-May, while their counterparts in places such as Georgia, Oklahoma and Alaska are allowing certain businesses to reopen.

White House strategists are planning to shift President Donald Trump’s public focus from the pandemic toward fixing the economy.

This comes after he was sharply criticised in recent days for publicly musing that scientists should explore injecting toxic disinfectants as a potential virus cure.

The official death toll from the virus has topped 206,000 worldwide, with nearly three million confirmed infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The real figures are believed to be much higher, in part because of inadequate testing and differences in counting the dead.

Italy, Britain, Spain and France accounted for more than 20,000 deaths each. In the US, the death toll was nearly 55,000 – close to the 58,000 US troops who were killed during the Vietnam War.

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