New Zealand Lifts Almost All Coronavirus Restrictions After Country Reports No Active Cases

NEW ZEALAND WILL LIFT almost all of its Coronavirus restrictions on Monday after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced no active cases in the country.

New Zealand has had no positive cases reported in the past 17 days. No one has received treatment at a hospital for the virus in the last 12 days, and the last virus case of community spread occurred 40 days ago.

New Zealand will move from alert Level 2 to alert level 1 on Monday, signaling that the disease is contained in New Zealand. The country’s “risk assessment” in Level 1 is that the virus is uncontrolled overseas and some isolated household transmission in New Zealand could occur.

In alert Level 1, schools and workplaces will open and all restrictions on personal movement and travel, on gatherings, on domestic transport or workplace or services will be lifted. People and event organizers are encouraged to keep detailed information and records of their movements and event participants in order for contact tracing should new cases appear.

Health officials report 1,504 cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand and 22 deaths. Officials report more than 7 million cases across the globe, and more than 403,130 people have died.

Widespread “intensive” testing for COVID-19 will continue, and New Zealand health officials will continue contact tracing of any new cases. Self-isolation and quarantine is still required for people who show symptoms or test positive for the coronavirus.

Ardern said the country’s international borders will remain shut to non-residents to prevent new outbreaks for the foreseeable future. New Zealand residents arriving in the country are required to quarantine for two weeks.

The prime minister said it is “very, very likely that we will see COVID in New Zealand again and that does not mean that we have failed. There are tens of thousands of cases still being reported daily around the world and so it’s a global reality.”

“So long as COVID continues to be a global reality, we do need to just be prepared here,” Ardern added.