29 May 2020

Covid-19 in NZ one case away from elimination

From Checkpoint, 5:08 pm on 29 May 2020

On February 29, New Zealand had one active case of Covid-19. Today, exactly three months on, there is now only one active case of Covid-19, with no new cases reported for a seventh day in a row.

To paint a quirky picture, according to John Hopkins University, that puts us on a par with Turks and Caicos, and New Caledonia.

It also puts Aotearoa ahead of islands like Fiji which still has three active cases, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Guam, Hawaii, Mauritius, the Maldives and the Cayman Islands.

The Health Ministry says seven more people have recovered and the total of confirmed and probable cases remains at 1504.

It comes as the limit on social gatherings increased to 100 people, at midday today, making New Zealand one of the most relaxed regimes, and the most open economies in the world right now - ahead of Australia, Canada, the UK and the US.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson says a full week without any new cases shows what an incredible job New Zealanders have done in fighting the virus.

But despite these positive signs, Mr Robertson says Cabinet will be sticking to the plan of reviewing the alert level 2 settings on June 8 - and not earlier.