{"id":68428,"date":"2020-04-12T02:22:04","date_gmt":"2020-04-12T07:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=68428"},"modified":"2020-04-12T15:52:56","modified_gmt":"2020-04-12T20:52:56","slug":"new-zealand-under-the-inspiring-leadership-of-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-seeks-to-stamp-out-covid-19-instead-of-just-flattening-the-curve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=68428","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand Under The Inspiring Leadership of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Seeks To Stamp Out Covid-19 Instead of Just Flattening the Curve."},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy<\/p>\n

Anna Fifield<\/strong><\/p>\n

I<\/strong>t\u2019s been less than two weeks since New Zealand imposed a coronavirus lockdown so strict that swimming at the beach and hunting in bushland were banned. They\u2019re not essential activities, plus we\u2019ve been told not to do anything that could divert emergency services\u2019 resources.<\/p>\n

People have been walking and biking strictly in their neighborhoods, lining up six feet apart while waiting to go one-in-one-out into grocery stores, and joining swaths of the world in discovering the vagaries of home schooling.
\nIt took only 10 days for signs that the approach here \u2014 \u201celimination\u201d rather than the \u201ccontainment\u201d goal of the United States and other Western countries \u2014 is working.<\/p>\n

The number of new cases has fallen for two consecutive days, despite a huge increase in testing, with 54 confirmed or probable cases reported Tuesday. That means the number of people who have recovered, 65, exceeds the number of daily infections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe signs are promising,\u201d Ashley Bloomfield, the director-general of health, said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The speedy results have led to calls to ease the lockdown conditions, even a little, for the four-day Easter holiday, especially as summer lingers on.
\nBut Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is adamant that New Zealand will complete four weeks of lockdown \u2014 two full 14-day incubation cycles \u2014 before letting up. She has, however, given the Easter Bunny special dispensation to work this weekend.<\/p>\n

How has New Zealand, a country I still call home after 20 years abroad, controlled its outbreak so quickly?<\/p>\n

When I arrived here a month ago, traveling from the epicenter of China via the hotspot of South Korea, I was shocked that officials did not take my temperature at the airport. I was told simply to self-isolate for 14 days (I did).<\/p>\n

But with the coronavirus tearing through Italy and spreading in the United States, this heavily tourism-reliant country \u2014 it gets about four million international visitors a year, almost as many as its total population \u2014 did the previously unthinkable: it shut its borders to foreigners on March 19.<\/p>\n

Two days later, Ardern delivered a televised address from her office \u2014 the first time since 1982 that an Oval Office-style speech had been given \u2014 announcing a coronavirus response alert plan involving four stages, with full lockdown being Level 4.<\/p>\n

A group of influential leaders got on the phone with her the following day to urge moving to Level 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hugely worried about what was happening in Italy and Spain,\u201d said one of them, Stephen Tindall, founder of the Warehouse, New Zealand\u2019s largest retailer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we didn\u2019t shut down quickly enough, the pain was going to go on for a very long time,\u201d he said in a phone interview. \u201cIt\u2019s inevitable that we will have to shut down anyway, so we would rather it be sharp and short.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the Monday, March 23, Ardern delivered another statement and gave the country 48 hours to prepare for a Level 4 lockdown. \u201cWe currently have 102 cases,\u201d she said. \u201cBut so did Italy once.\u201d<\/p>\n

From that Wednesday night, everyone had to stay at home for four weeks unless they worked in an essential job such as health care, or were going to the supermarket or exercising near their home.<\/p>\n

A few hours before midnight, my phone sounded a siren as it delivered a text alert: \u201cAct as if you have Covid-19. This will save lives,\u201d it said. \u201cLet\u2019s all do our bit to unite against Covid-19.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the earliest stages, Ardern and her team have spoken in simple language: Stay home. Don\u2019t have contact without anyone outside your household \u201cbubble.\u201d Be kind. We\u2019re all in this together.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s usually done this from the podium of news conferences where she has discussed everything from the price of cauliflowers to wage subsidies. But she also regularly gives updates and answers questions on Facebook, including one done while sitting at home \u2014 possibly on her bed \u2014 in a sweatshirt.<\/p>\n

There have been critics and rebels. The police have been ordering surfers out of the waves. The health minister was caught \u2014 and publicly chastised by Ardern, who said she would have fired him if it weren\u2019t disruptive to the crisis response \u2014 for mountain biking and taking his family to the beach.<\/p>\n

But there has been a sense of collective purpose. The police phone line for nonemergencies has been overwhelmed with people calling to \u201cdob in,\u201d as we say here, others they think are breaching the rules.<\/p>\n

The response has been notably apolitical. The center-right National Party has clearly made a decision not to criticize the government\u2019s response, and in fact to help it.<\/p>\n

These efforts appear to be paying off.<\/p>\n

After peaking at 89 on April 2, the daily number of new cases ticked down to 67 on Monday and 54 on Tuesday. The vast majority of cases can be linked to international travel, making contact tracing relatively easy, and many are consolidated into identifiable clusters.<\/p>\n

Because there is little evidence of community transmission, New Zealand does not have huge numbers of people overwhelming hospitals. Only one person, an elderly woman with existing health problems, has died.<\/p>\n

The nascent slowdown reflected \u201ca triumph of science and leadership,\u201d said Michael Baker, a professor of public health at the University of Otago and one of the country\u2019s top epidemiologists.<\/p>\n

\u201cJacinda approached this decisively and unequivocally and faced the threat,\u201d said Baker, who had been advocating for an \u201celimination\u201d approach since reading a World Health Organization report from China in February.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther countries have had a gradual ramp-up, but our approach is exactly the opposite,\u201d he said. While other Western countries have tried to slow the disease and \u201cflatten the curve,\u201d New Zealand has tried to stamp it out entirely.<\/p>\n

Some American doctors have urged the Trump administration to pursue the elimination approach.<\/p>\n

In New Zealand\u2019s case, being a small island nation makes it easy to shut borders. It also helps that the country often feels like a village where everyone knows everyone else, so messages can travel quickly.<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s next challenge: Once the virus is eliminated, how to keep it that way.<\/p>\n

The country won\u2019t be able to allow people free entry into New Zealand until the virus has stopped circulating globally or a vaccine has been developed, said Baker. But with strict border control, restrictions could be gradually relaxed and life inside New Zealand could return to almost normal.<\/p>\n

Ardern has said her government is considering mandatory quarantine for New Zealanders returning to the country post-lockdown. \u201cI really want a watertight system at our border,\u201d she said this week, \u201cand I think we can do better on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Washington Post<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anna Fifield It\u2019s been less than two weeks since New Zealand imposed a coronavirus lockdown so strict that swimming at the beach and hunting in bushland were banned. They\u2019re not essential activities, plus we\u2019ve been told not to do anything that could divert emergency services\u2019 resources. People have been walking and biking strictly in …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘New Zealand Under The Inspiring Leadership of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Seeks To Stamp Out Covid-19 Instead of Just Flattening the Curve.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68431,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68428\/revisions\/68431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}