While countries like USA, India and Australia continue to battle Covid-19 outbreaks, New Zealand has come out as an example of how to fight the pandemic. The country has now reached a new milestone – as no cases have emerged via community transmission in the last 100 days.
As of August 3, the country had reported 1,219 confirmed cases, including just 21 active infections, all in managed isolation facilities., authorities announced Sunday, with all new infections coming from abroad. In total, the island nation of 5 million people has reported 22 coronavirus deaths. One key reason is that although the country appears to have the coronavirus under control, authorities are still testing thousands of people a day.
New Zealand’s strategy was to put in strict restrictions in the early stage itself. The lockdown was relatively strict — no takeaways, no beaches, and no driving outside of your neighborhood. The strictest rules were in place for around five weeks, but the country remained under effective lockdown for a further two weeks. Since June, the country has been almost back to normal — and there hasn’t been a need to return to lockdown.