New Zealand

[jesmu84]

Interesting to read about how they've been dealing with this. Seems successful so far

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52344299

https://time.com/5825390/new-zealand-coronavirus/

[Warriors4ever]

I've been following some countries on the Tripadvisor Travel Forum (you may laugh, but have gotten very interesting pieces of information from locals).  They have had a pretty extensive lockdown, barring travel between different areas of the country, and people in general bought into it.  The current talk is that people there are speculating that travel with Australia and perhaps some Pacific Islands that have locked themselves down (pretty much had to, because most flights go through New Zealand so far all practical purposes travel was shut down) will come first, after domestic travel.  Right now they want no part of international travelers from the US and Europe.  And yes, they do know that tourism is a large chunk of their economy - some are rethinking how much they should encourage cheap vacations. 

[TSmith34, Inc.]

New Zealand has 'effectively eliminated' coronavirus. Here's what they did right.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/2020/04/what-new-zealand-did-right-in-battling-coronavirus/

[Warriors4ever]

Behind a firewall, can you summarize?
I'm not registering anymore for every publication under the sun.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

"The country began mandatory quarantines for all visitors on March 15, one of the strictest policies in the world at the time, even though there were just six cases nationwide. Just 10 days later, it instituted a complete, countrywide lockdown, including a moratorium on domestic travel. The Level 4 restrictions meant grocery stores, pharmacies, hospitals, and petrol stations were the only commerce allowed; vehicle travel was restricted; and social interaction was limited to within households.

"The sudden austerity could have been a cause for panic. But each day, the 39-year-old Ardern, or "Jaz" as she's popularly known, made clear, concise statements about the situation to the nation, bolstered by a team of scientists and health professionals. A few days after the lockdown, she announced that instead of just slowing the transmission of the virus, New Zealand had set a course of eradicating COVID-19 from its shores, by cutting off the arrival of new cases and choking out existing ones with the restrictions. "We have the opportunity to do something no other country has achieved: elimination of the virus," said Ardern at one of her daily briefings.


"The plan seems to have worked. The daily infection rate in the island nation of 4.9 million steadily dropped from a maximum of 146 in late March to just a few cases a day by mid-April. All told, New Zealand reported a high of 1,476 cases and 19 deaths. On April 26, the country experienced a watershed moment when no new COVID-19 cases and no community transmissions were reported for the first time in over six weeks, though seven new cases cropped up by April 30."

[Warriors4ever]

Thanks.
Pretty much what I was gleaning from locals posting on TA.
They have the advantage of being small and with easily -closed borders, but their lockdown would have made people here weep.
There are Caribbean countries where even citizens have been barred from entry. And where you are assigned days of the week to grocery shop alphabetically.

[JWags85]

Really interesting to watch the varied reactions to New Zealand's COVID related activities of the last week.

First they announced their "reopening" plans for 2022 for vaccinated travelers, which unless you're deemed from a "low risk" country, of which I can't imagine there will be many on the list, they will still require quarantine.  If you're fully vaccinated and test negative, but from a "high risk" country, they will still require a 14 day managed quarantine.

Then the other day, they announced a nationwide lockdown as a COVID case was detected.  Which, while kind of crazy on the surface, very much makes sense for how they've handled things.

Just really interesting to see a country think that COVID zero is a long time possibility, and express a willingness to be completely isolated from the rest of the world to do so.  And the people that cheer this and think its both the path all countries should be taken and/or its feasible for anything but small island nations.

Also interesting that for a country of only around 5 million people, with the approach they've taken, they still won't have sufficient vaccines for the adult population until Sept 1.

[Boozemon Barro]

They'll be on house arrest forever. Covid is never going away.

[Billy Hoyle]

They'll be on house arrest forever. Covid is never going away.

Australia too. They're using police and the military to enforce the lockdown.

Starting Monday, some 300 unarmed soldiers will begin patrols in Sydney — a city of 6 million people. They will be knocking on doors to ensure that residents are following strict stay-at-home measures, the Australian broadcaster ABC reported.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-58066389

[Jay Bee]

#EffectivelyEliminated

Lol

[ZiggysFryBoy]

https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-education-new-zealand-pandemics-617bdd9ffd2c53464287ad031ccf3877

2 years of tyrannical lockdowns, and they're just now getting covid.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

"Tyranical"

"Experts say New Zealand's sometimes counterintuitive actions have likely saved thousands of lives by allowing the nation to mostly avoid earlier, more deadly variants and buying time to get people vaccinated. The nation of 5 million has reported just 65 virus deaths since the pandemic began."

94% fully vaccinated, 96% with at least one dose
https://www.health.govt.nz/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-vaccine-data

Gosh you're dumb.

[pacearrow02]

"Tyranical"

"Experts say New Zealand's sometimes counterintuitive actions have likely saved thousands of lives by allowing the nation to mostly avoid earlier, more deadly variants and buying time to get people vaccinated. The nation of 5 million has reported just 65 virus deaths since the pandemic began."

94% fully vaccinated, 96% with at least one dose
https://www.health.govt.nz/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-vaccine-data

Gosh you're dumb.

And the majority of the over 700 people currently hospitalized in NZ because of Covid right now are.......?????

[MUBurrow]

And the majority of the over 700 people currently hospitalized in NZ because of Covid right now are.......?????

Is it your position that vaccination does not significantly reduce the risk of severe covid?

[pacearrow02]

Is it your position that vaccination does not significantly reduce the risk of severe covid?

Correct after 70-90(ish) days it does not.  #keepsciencing

[Galway Eagle]

And the majority of the over 700 people currently hospitalized in NZ because of Covid right now are.......?????

Just over a 0.012% of the population. Is it your position that 96% means that all 4% should also be fully protected somehow because other did the work?

[pacearrow02]

Is it your position that vaccination does not significantly reduce the risk of severe covid?

Now that there is an obvious seasonality to Covid it should be treated exact same as influenza.  Get your annual shot right before "Covid season" begins which like the flu shot won't prevent you from getting Covid or the flu but should help lessen symptoms for that 2-3 month window

[pacearrow02]

Just over a 0.012% of the population. Is it your position that 96% means that all 4% should also be fully protected somehow because other did the work?

Stop spreading misinformation

[MUBurrow]

Now that there is an obvious seasonality to Covid it should be treated exact same as influenza.  Get your annual shot right before "Covid season" begins which like the flu shot won't prevent you from getting Covid or the flu but should help lessen symptoms for that 2-3 month window

Okay thanks. As we keep getting more data, I think that's likely a reasonable way to play endemic covid.

[Pakuni]

Given what we're seeing in Ukraine, Russia and China these days, it's hard to believe some people are still stupid enough to call it "tyranny" when a Democratically elected government won't let them get drunk at their favorite bar or requires a mask at the grocery story because it slows the spread of a deadly disease.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Stop spreading misinformation

[JWags85]

The obsession, both positive and negative, with NZ and Covid is so tiring to me.

They are a very isolated, relatively small population island nation.  They did and were able to do some drastic things that most everywhere else couldn't do.  Looking to them as some sort of inspirational case study was always flawed and unrealistic.

But at the same times, who cares.  If their populous is happy, so be it.  If Jacinda Barrett or some Kiwi commentators want to crow about themselves against the rest of the world, ok cool.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Given what we're seeing in Ukraine, Russia and China these days, it's hard to believe some people are still stupid enough to call it "tyranny" when a Democratically elected government won't let them get drunk at their favorite bar or requires a mask at the grocery story because it slows the spread of a deadly disease.

They were locked down for 2 years. 

There can be more than 1 kind of tyranny in the world.

[Pakuni]

They were locked down for 2 years. 

There can be more than 1 kind of tyranny in the world.

1. No, they weren't. There were national lockdowns from late March to late May 2020 and August 2021 to December 2021. In addition, the Auckland region had lockdowns From August to September 2020 and February to March 2021. So, at worst, there were 11 months of lockdown over a 24-month period.
2. The population was free to remove those imposing the restrictions from office through peaceful means (i.e. voting). Instead, they gave the prime minister and her party a landslide victory. Doesn't seem very tyrannical.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

They were locked down for 2 years. 

There can be more than 1 kind of tyranny in the world.

"Tyrannical"

So, so dumb.