New Zealand claims 'elimination' of coronavirus with new cases in single digits

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CNN

By Anna Kam

(CNN)New Zealand claimed Monday it had "eliminated" the coronavirus as the country announced the easing of restrictions from "level four" to "level three," with new cases in single figures.

At a news conference, New Zealand reported one new case, four "probable cases" and one new death.

Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand's Director General of Health, said the low number "does give us confidence that we've achieved our goal of elimination, which -- that never meant zero but it does mean we know where our cases are coming from."

He added: "Our goal is elimination. And again, that doesn't mean eradication but it means we get down to a small number of cases so that we are able to stamp out any cases and any outbreak that might come out."



New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks at a coronavirus briefing at the country's parliament in Wellington on April 27.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/27/asia/new-zealand-elimination-coronavirus-jacinda-ardern-intl/index.html

[beachbumbob]

1. next step is testing to see all who had it and those that didn't and how to preopare for the next

wave.

[IronLionZion]

2. USA will say hold my beer and watch this

as we peak the curve

[Lonestarblue]

3. In the same amount of time as the US had, NZ achieved safety and can reopen.

I wish Trump supporters could see that leadership matters, and that we do not have a leader in Trump. Trump views everything through a lens of what is best for him, and how he can lie and manipulate situations to make people believe that he is a leader. What a scam! Unfortunately, even before this first phase of the virus is somewhat tamed, we are likely to see more than a hundred thousand deaths. Just unimportant collateral damage to Trump.

I wish we had someone like Jacinda Ahern as our president. Oh, we did elect her. Russia and Republicans cheated to install the nincompoop we now have.

[Prof.Higgins]

4. Australia is close to elimination also due to fed and state leaders effectively locking down. Plus

testing done at one of the highest rates per capita in the world. After the American media's coverage of Australia's recent terrible bushfires, it's strange that they now ignore the significant difference between Trump's failed response to COVID-19 in February/March and that of the Aussie Prime Minister in consultation with all its states and territories.

[JI7]

5. Trump is the biggest reason we are not doing better

[Ford_Prefect]

8. He is nearly the Only reason. He destroyed the organized reponse teams

and fired the experts who were in place to observe in China, and fired or muted the experts, and dumped the data and planning here so that when the event was on the horizon there was no way to respond in place.

He is the one who injected his obsession with control into the institutions of Justice, Diplomacy and Intelligence that the best people were silenced or knee-capped or simply left.

He is the one who, when news came of events in China, authorized his son-in-law to arrange profit schemes in response, which led to the theft, reassignment and piracy by fraud of millions of masks and ventilators desperately needed by health workers and citizens alike. Then he engaged in scamming the entire county to sell a dangerous false remedy at premium prices for his personal profit, and delayed yet longer thoughtful and science based response...and attacked those who acted responsibly.

Several experts have said: absent the delays and interference by or initiated by Trump many if not most of the U.S. deaths could have been avoided and much of the impact on our economy muted.

His resistance at critical points and that of McConnell, along with their intentional disabling of federal governance to the benefit of private industry are at the root of this and are mostly to blame for the 4 month delay and the near destruction of the hospitals and medical support systems who've been overwhelmed.

See Also: [link:https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213354502|

[BumRushDaShow]

6. New Zealand has a total population a bit bigger than the city of Los Angeles

and their biggest city has about the same population as Manhattan borough.

I think the thought is good - on a "micro scale" for our U.S. cities, but it would take a gigantic effort to be applicable to a country of 330,000,000 people.

[mr_lebowski]

9. It also has the whole, ya know ... ISLAND thing going for it as well.

Along with their only having 5 international airports instead of dozens ...

Combine those advantages with actual competent leadership, and things turn out well.

[Ohiogal]

7. Why can't we have nice things too?