NEW ZEALAND’S TEAM OF FIVE MILLION ERADICATES COVID-19 Written by Hannah Prensky Illustrated by Alice Sardarian July 30, 2020
“Phone, keys, wallet, …mask.” The traditional mental checklist we go through before leaving the house officially has a new component. During the COVID-19 pandemic, forgetting to bring a mask is the new equivalent of showing up to Butler without a CUID. As cases sharply increase across the United States, many states now require maskwearing in public at all times. Recent research by Goldman Sachs showed that, in addition to promoting personal safety, a national mask mandate could even save the United States’ economy from a 5 percent GDP decline [1]. Although right now it is hard for many of us to imagine a world in which we can safely grocery shop without a face covering, that world does exist, and it’s in New Zealand. On June 8, Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, proudly informed her constituents that the country was officially COVID-19-free [2]. This announcement was made more than three weeks after the last COVID-19 patient in the country recovered from the virus and subsequently tested negative [2]. Few other nations have reached the same status (Montenegro, Eritrea, and Fiji have also reported no current active cases), though with almost five million people, New Zealand is the most populous country to do so [3, 13]. After enduring a period of harsh lockdowns, New Zealand’s residents are now free to live a pre-COVID normal without restriction or fear. Since the beginning of this outbreak, health officials around the world have advocated for “flattening the curve,” but New Zealand’s approach was radically different, opting for complete eradication of the virus instead. New Zealand confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on February 28, 2020 [2]. On March 25, when there were only around 200 confirmed cases, the government moved swiftly to close businesses, schools, and borders, imposing a harsh stay-at-home order with
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