As the world anxiously waits in the confines of their home for the pandemic to die down, New Zealand on Monday claimed that it had "eliminated" the coronavirus. In fact, the lockdown restrictions in the country have now moved from "level four" to "level three," with new cases in single figures.
"So as we have said elimination means we may well reach zero but we may well then have small numbers of cases coming up again, that doesn't mean we have failed, it just means that we are in the position to have that zero tolerance approach to have very aggressive management of those cases and keep those numbers low and fading out again," New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
The extremely encouraging news coming from the country instantly saw google searches shoot up in India, where the citizens have been in lockdown for over a month. With more than 31,000 cases and death toll crossing the 1000-mark, Indians desperately wanted to know "How New Zealand controlled coronavirus".
But if you thought only aam janta showed spiked interest in what New Zealand and its PM Jacinda Ardern were doing "right", on Monday, Her Majesty, the Queen rang up Ardern and discussed about her country.
"It was such a treat to speak with Her Majesty tonight. Her affection for New Zealand, her interest in what’s happening here and her memory of places and events that are special to us never ceases to amaze me," Ardern wrote in an Instagram post.
Those residing in different parts of the world now simply want to trade places with New Zealanders.
oh to be in New Zealand where they don’t protest viruses and just do what they’re supposed to do 😣 pic.twitter.com/9nJaW1pKqX — milly (@ellemefayo) April 28, 2020
Meanwhile, in New Zealand:
This. Is. Level. 3.
— Ashleigh Stewart (@Ash_Stewart_) April 28, 2020
Lovely Aliens. Come an abduct me and drop me off in New Zealand. Save us from this shit regime. pic.twitter.com/OZwJxtcjZO — Ben (@BenJolly9) April 28, 2020
‘Some countries talked about herd immunity as a strategy. In New Zealand we never ever considered that. Herd immunity would have meant 10s of 10000s of New Zealanders dying & I simply would not have tolerated that’
Today New Zealand returns to work
— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) April 28, 2020
starting to wonder if I should move to New Zealand. Is there a downside — Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) April 28, 2020
New Zealand has pretty much defeated the virus in a short amount of time. How? By implementing a hyper-aggressive lockdown IMMEDIATELY. And guess what? You're not gonna believe this part. Turns out, this was also the best thing for the economy which is almost back to normal!
— Brad Dickson (@brad_dickson) April 28, 2020
I swear New Zealand is the best country pic.twitter.com/RHisNhZa98 — gabrielle 👻 too shy 💜 (@settledowngirls) April 28, 2020
New Zealand- 19 deaths of 1,472 cases. 82% have recovered and they only reported one case yesterday. While this doesn’t mean there will be no cases, it will be easy to trace where the cases are coming from. This won’t have been possible without the extremely strict lockdown.
— period partner (@duchesskk) April 28, 2020
A stunning field of lupines in New Zealand pic.twitter.com/sCCOsCzbsd — Nature is Lit🔥 (@NaturelsLit) April 28, 2020
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