NEWZEALAND PRIME MINISTER DECLARES ITS COUNTRY COVID FREE "FOR NOW"

While the cases in India are peaking every day as we can see in the news. At least from another part of the world, there is some sort of positive news against the pandemic.

Here we will discuss the announcement day when PM of New Zealand declared its nation COVID free and its policies for the betterment of its people and boost its economy.

On June 8, 2020, in Wellington, New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern declared NewZealand a COVID free country in an official press conference. She mentioned that there are no active cases in New Zealand right now, they have tested almost 40000 people for 17 days before the announcement and none of the people had tested positive. She also said that there is no person admitted to the hospital for around 12 days and it has been 40 days since the last case of community transfer and 22 days since that person finish their self-isolation for COVID-19 before the day of declaration.

So on the midnight of 8 June, 2020 NewZealand uplifted all coronavirus restrictions that were implemented. According to a study as of June 9, NewZealand had 1504 coronavirus cases and just 22 related deaths. The population of the country is nearly 5 million that went under full lockdown in late March to fight against this pandemic and safeguard its people from this virus.

PM Jacinda Ardern in the interview also said New Zealand is not immune to what is happening in the rest of the world. But unlike the rest of the world, they not only have protected the health of the new Zealanders but have a head start on their economic recovery. She requested and encourage the new Zealanders to revitalize the economy by supporting local businesses.

When a reporter asked the PM what did she do when she got to know about their success against the virus (for the time being) PM Ardern humorously recalls the situation and said "I did a little dance". The Director-General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield who was also addressing the media with the PM said," I allowed myself a broad smile" on learning the victory against the virus. Life of the common people will return to normal but there will be border control and restrictions in place to avoid any further spread.

New Zealand lockdown lifts: Businesses reopen — photos - Axios

pic: people of Newzealand post lockdown

PM said, "we are confident we have eliminated the transmission of the virus in NewZealand for now. But elimination is not a point in time it is a sustained effort". She also stated that they might see coronavirus cases again. She stressed the word 'again', as she said that it is not a sign that they have failed but it is the reality of the virus.

In April 2020 PM Ardern announced that she and all members of her government would take a 20% pay cut for six months to help the workers and the people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To keep the citizen of her country motivated PM Ardern also did many Facebook live interactive sessions with its people.

How New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Reacted to the ...

pic: PM Ardern meeting the families of the victim of the christ church incident

“True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature.― Robert McKee

This quote is apt for PM Ardern and her government as COVID-19 it is not the only victory that they had against such hard times. In March 2019, after the Christchurch event when 151 people were shot dead inside a Mosque by the terrorists. In just 10 days she changed the laws on the scale of weapons. She announced and implemented the law that NewZealand will ban all military-style semi-automatic weapons and also band all assault rifles. Her management of such disaster situations with compassion and quick action garnered her praises from all over the globe. In 2020 she received a 59.5% positive rating in an opinion poll making her the most popular prime minister in New Zealand history.

She and her government and also the people of NewZealand deserves applause for their win against these hard times and come out victorious 'together'.

WHAT CAN OUR COUNTRY LEARN FROM THE SUCCESS OF NEWZEALAND?

The victory of NewZealand does definitely tells us and more so teaches us that we also can fight this virus. It is the combined effort of the people and its government to stop the contamination of the virus.

"Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.” – Pablo Picasso

The Indian government had implemented lockdown before much spread could happen but still, we see our curve of cases increasing day by day. The main reason for this is due to the sheer ignorance of the people and lack of proper management strategy and implementation by the government. We all know that although the government announced lockdown for the safety of the people, still the people would not follow it and come out of their homes although not necessary at all. The government also did not do much justice to the state of the migrant workers in our country. We know compared to Newzealand our population is way bigger than theirs but it isn't impossible to stop the virus from further spread

pic: Migrant workers after the lockdown has been removed

We know that our nation is labor or worker-driven country. Still, the government did not pay any heed to the problems faced by that section of people. Funds were collected from the people saying it will be for the people, but I don't see the funds being utilized for the good on such a scale in which the funds were being collected from the people.

Although, the lockdown has been uplifted due to the economic depression that our country is facing it is not doing good justification in doing good for the people. Instead, we can see the increase in cases all around the country. We can see people not maintaining social distancing and it seems that they have forgotten in what dire situation we currently are in. We can see people in the public vehicle how they just seem to ignore the social distancing norm. So the wise decision at this time will be maintaining the social distancing and go out only and only if necessary and not for leisure for your own safety and safety of other people.

"Try to be like the turtle – at ease in your own shell." — Bill Copeland

we have to wait for the vaccine and hope for the best

No one knows when this will be over, but one thing I believe is if we fight together we win together. So we need to keep our patience and hope for the good days as Mahatma Gandhi once said, "To lose patience is to lose the battle.”