New Zealand has beaten COVID-19. Here’s how

New Zealand has officially beaten COVID-19.

The island country announced Monday, June 8, that its last remaining person with the infection had gone 48 hours without symptoms and is now considered recovered.

With no active cases, the government moved to “alert level 1,” the lowest of four alert levels that effectively lifts all remaining social-distancing measures. There are now no restrictions on movement, domestic travel, or gatherings. Fans of rugby and other sports are allowed to return, en masse, to stadiums. Schools, workplaces, restaurant, and shops are all open.

The only restrictions still in place are at the border. Entry to New Zealand is mostly being limited to citizens and residents. Those entering are required to complete a 14-day quarantine and be tested.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern—who has earned international praise for her handling of the pandemic—was thrilled by the news. In a press conference, she confessed that when she first heard it, she “did a little dance” in front of her daughter Neve, who is just shy of 2 years old. “I showed Neve, she was caught a little by surprise but she joined in, having absolutely no idea why I was dancing around the lounge but enjoying it nonetheless,” Ardern said.

The celebration comes just 101 days since New Zealand identified its first case, 75 days of being on any of the four COVID-19 alert levels, and 26 days of being at level 2.

Seventeen days have passed since any Kiwis have turned up positive for the infection, even though labs there have run more than 40,000 tests in that time frame. In the last week, labs reported running an average of 1,891 tests per day.

In all, the country of about 5 million has documented only 1,504 confirmed and probable cases, with 22 deaths—all the deaths were in people who were aged 60 or above. The country has run a total of nearly 300,000 tests since testing began January 22. Officials confirmed the first case on February 28, in a person who had returned from Iran.

“We went hard and early”

New Zealand’s success is attributed to its relatively swift and aggressive efforts to ramp up testing and tracing, isolate cases, quarantine contacts, and institute lockdowns—plus its geographical advantage of being an island nation has been helpful.

The government unveiled its four-level alert system in late March, which provided clear, countrywide measures to address each state of transmission. Level 4, the “lockdown” level, goes into effect when the disease is likely not contained and spreading through the community.

If the state of the outbreak improves such that there’s still community transmission but clusters of infections can be managed by testing and contact tracing, the country moves to Level 3, the “restrict” level. At this point, some social-distancing measures can be lifted; schools can reopen and small gatherings of 10 or fewer are allowed, for instance.

When community transmission is contained but risk of it lingers, the country moves to level 2, the “reduce” level. Here, gatherings can be as large as 100, and businesses can resume some activities while still requiring people to keep physical distance from one another.

Last is level 1, the “prepare” level. Social-distancing measures and other restrictions are lifted, but testing and tracing capacity remain at the ready, sick people must stay at home, and everyone should continue to practice enhanced hygiene. Additionally, people are encouraged to log their whereabouts to aid any potential need to trace disease spread in the future. To help with this, businesses are encouraged to have QR codes at doorways so people can keep a “digital diary” of their whereabouts.

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When the alert levels were released on March 21, the level was set to 2. There were just 56 confirmed and probable cases at the time. By March 25, the government moved to level 4. By then, labs had completed 13,382 tests, and officials had identified 205 confirmed and probable cases.

“We have community transmission in New Zealand, confirmed in four cases and suspected in other cases we are investigating,” a March 25 media release from the Ministry of Health read.

“We move tonight to Alert level 4. We will see a rise in cases for the next 10 days, from people infected before today. The numbers will continue to increase before they turn around. That turnaround will happen if we all do what is asked of us. If we all play our part we will break the chain of community transmission.”

In today’s announcement on moving to level 1, Ardern noted that the country “went hard and early” and “united in an unprecedented ways to crush the virus.”

“Our team of 5 million has both sacrificed and achieved a huge amount in just under 11 weeks.”

But, she noted that the elimination now doesn’t mean New Zealand has forever rid itself of the new coronavirus, which is still raging in many places around the globe, including the United States.

“We are confident we have eliminated transmission of the virus in New Zealand for now, but elimination is not a point in time, it is a sustained effort,” she said at the news conference. “We almost certainly will see cases here again, and I do want to say that again, we will almost certainly see cases here again, and that is not a sign that we have failed, it is a reality of this virus. But if and when that occurs we have to make sure—and we are—that we are prepared.”

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1682066