Five reasons for New Zealand's success in containing coronavirus
The Prime Minister of New Zealand announced that the spread of the coronavirus in the country has stopped. New Zealand is among the countries that have recorded the lowest death rate from Covid-19. What factors have made New Zealand successful in containing the pandemic?
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in an interview that she danced for joy after hearing the news that the country's last COVID-19 patient had recovered.
Covid-19 is an infectious disease caused by the coronavirus. New Zealand is one of the most successful countries in the world in managing the coronavirus pandemic. According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, New Zealand has recorded a total of 1,504 cases of Covid-19 and only 22 deaths from the disease.
In comparison to this number of patients in New Zealand, we can mention Ireland, which, with a population similar to New Zealand (about five million people), has had more than 25,000 cases of COVID-19 and 1,679 deaths so far.
A look at five reasons for New Zealand's success:
Quick and serious quarantine
New Zealand's prime minister declared at the start of the coronavirus pandemic that "strong and swift action" was needed to tackle the situation. On March 15, when New Zealand had recorded 100 cases of COVID-19 and no deaths, the country closed its borders to foreign travelers and sent its citizens returning from abroad into a two-week quarantine.
Two days later, the New Zealand government announced a complete lockdown in the country, a measure that was considered very strict by international standards for dealing with the pandemic. From this date onwards, only food stores, pharmacies and hospitals were allowed to operate.
In this country, urban traffic and vehicle movement were restricted and social relations were limited to within-family contacts. These severe restrictions lasted for a month and were then eased step by step. Currently, all social restrictions and economic activities have been lifted there, with only border restrictions still in place.
"The New Zealand government's measures at the beginning of the pandemic were very effective and prevented the further spread of the virus," Oksana Pyzhik, professor of pharmacy at University College London, told DW. "New Zealand made good use of the precious time that other countries wasted," she emphasizes.
Effectively informing people
Shortly before introducing its strict measures, the New Zealand government sent a written message to its citizens, saying: “This message is for all New Zealanders. We are counting on you. Wherever you are tonight, you must stay there… The government’s strict measures are likely to continue for several weeks.”
As the number of patients increased, the Prime Minister of New Zealand outlined his approach to dealing with the pandemic, and on April 6, in a speech to the country's citizens, he said: "We have an opportunity to achieve a success that no country has yet achieved, namely the elimination of this virus from the country."
One citizen of this country told the CNBC television network: "The government managed people's expectations very well. We were told that it would take two weeks for the impact of the quarantine on the statistics to be clear. This made the quarantine easy to understand and accept by the people."
Oksana Pyzhik also believes that the government got its message across to the public in the right way. "By consistently sending messages about health as a priority, holding daily press conferences and directly addressing the public, especially children, it attracted people's attention and cooperation," the scientific expert told DW.
Increasing the capacity of coronavirus testing laboratories
New Zealand's prime minister announced last week that his country could conduct more than 8,000 coronavirus tests a day, one of the highest laboratory capacities in the world relative to its population. New Zealand has tested a total of about 295,000 people so far.
Shawn Hindy, head of the Te Punaha Matatini science center, which advises the New Zealand government on how to contain the coronavirus, told the website Axios that New Zealand's strict quarantine measures made it possible to identify infected people and find their contacts.
Pijik agrees with this conclusion, saying: "Wide testing and tracing of infected people, as recommended by the World Health Organization, played a key role in keeping the number of cases and deaths from Covid-19 limited."
Demographic and geographical advantage
The fact that New Zealand is an island country has played a role in its successful containment of the coronavirus. Border controls were easier for the country than for countries with long land borders. The low population density was also a big advantage. Coronavirus is transmitted from person to person, and the more dispersed the population, the slower it spreads.
Properly following pandemic guidelines
The New Zealand government has implemented best practices to combat the novel coronavirus. “Finding suspected cases, testing, treating and caring for every case, and tracing and quarantining those who have come into contact with them are the cornerstones of a proper pandemic response,” says Pijik.
The halt in the spread of the coronavirus in New Zealand means the country can resume its economic activity. The Prime Minister of New Zealand has said that economic activity in the country will restart at 3.8% below normal capacity.
