New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced that coronavirus has been “currently” eliminated in the country.
There were just five new Covid-19 cases reported on Monday with no widespread community transition.
Ardern said the country has so far managed to avoid the worst scenarios for an outbreak and would continue to hunt down the last few cases.
Easing of lockdown
Ardern said there was no way of knowing what may have happened without the level-4 lockdown.
But she warned that in level-3 there were new risks – namely people coming into more contact with others.
Level 3 will see retailers, restaurants and schools allowed to reopen on a smaller scale. Schools will reopen on Wednesday for children up to Year 10 who cannot study from home, or whose parents need to return to work.
Workers will also be able to resume on-site work, provided they have a Covid-19 control plan in place, with appropriate health and safety and physical distancing measures. It is expected one million New Zealanders will return to work on Tuesday.
However, Ardern warned the public of bringing too many people into expanded family “bubbles”.
As such, from midnight on Monday, certain businesses such as construction will be allowed to reopen, but social distancing rules will still apply.
“We are opening up the economy, but we’re not opening up people’s social lives,” Ms Ardern said at the daily government briefing.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said the low number of new cases in recent days “does give us confidence that we have achieved our goal of elimination”.
He warned that “elimination” did not mean there would be no new cases, “but it does mean we know where our cases are coming from”.