COVID eliminated, for now: New Zealand lifts lockdown as new cases fall to zero

Prime Minister Ardern says confident country has limited transmission for now, but warns there may be more infections in the future

By AP 8 June 2020, 7:39 am

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A man reacts as a medical staffer tests shoppers who volunteered at a pop-up community COVID-19 testing station at a supermarket carpark in Christchurch, New Zealand, April 17, 2020 (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday she was confident New Zealand has halted the spread of the coronavirus after the last known infected person in the country recovered.

It has been 17 days since the last new case was reported in New Zealand, and Monday also marked the first time since late February that there have been no active cases.

New Zealand has tested almost 40,000 people in the past 17 days and no one has been in a hospital with COVID-19 for 12 days, Ardern said at a news conference.

She also announced the Cabinet agreed to another phase of the country’s reopening at midnight.

In this March 21, 2020, file photo, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern holds up a card showing a new alert system for COVID-19 in Wellington, New Zealand (AP Photo/Nick Perry)

“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. “We almost certainly will see cases here again, and I do want to say 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.”

Experts say a number of factors have helped the nation of 5 million wipe out the disease. Its isolated location in the South Pacific gave it vital time to see how outbreaks spread in other countries, and Ardern acted decisively by imposing a strict lockdown early in the outbreak, including closing its borders.

Just over 1,500 people contracted the virus in New Zealand, including 22 who died.