New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Arden has announced that there is no longer any active coronavirus cases in the country, after the last known patient recovered from the disease.
Arden who made this known on Monday, said as a result of the achievement, social distancing restrictions will be lifted from midnight on Monday, as the country downgrades its national alert from level two to level one.
This means there will be no limitations on any businesses, domestic travel, public gatherings or sports events. People will only be asked to keep track of where they have been to aid contact tracing if future cases emerge.
It would be recalled that the Prime Minister had last week predicted this new feat after recording no case of coronavirus for 11 consecutive days.
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Ardern however stated that border controls will remain in place and everyone entering New Zealand will still be tested.
The Prime Minister said;
While the job is not done, there is no denying this is a milestone. Thank you, New Zealand. 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.
While celebrating the milestone, Ardern also struck a note of caution by warning that New Zealand will ‘certainly’ see more cases in the future.
Ardern’s announcement comes after 75 days of restrictions, including a strict seven-week lockdown during which everyone except essential workers were mandated to stay indoors.
While this has almost triggered a deep recession, the government expresses hope that being virus-free will allow the economy to recover more rapidly than many of its peers.
This is the first time that there have been no active COVID-19 cases since the virus reached New Zealand in late February.
The country’s health ministry recorded 1,154 infections and 22 deaths from the disease during that period.
The last coronavirus case was reported 17 days ago and 40,000 tests have been carried out since then.
