At the end of 2020, Bloomberg rated New Zealand as the country with the best overall response to the pandemic and in May 2021, this country in Oceania continues to hold the position.
Vehicles move on the street in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photo: THX/VNA) It is no coincidence that New Zealand consistently tops the rankings of both Bloomberg and Australia’s Lowy Institute for COVID-19 response. At the end of 2020, Bloomberg ranked New Zealand as the country with the best overall response in the world to the pandemic. In May 2021, the country in Oceania continued to hold the top spot in Bloomberg’s ranking, despite the rate vaccination against COVID-19 in New Zealand is still quite low, 4.8% of the population, while this index of Singapore, the second ranked country, is up to 29.9%. It is worth mentioning that from October 2020 to May 2021, only in April, New Zealand “gives” this top position to Singapore. Over the past three months, New Zealand has not recorded any more cases of infection in the community. Since the discovery of the first COVID-19 patient on February 28, 2020, this Pacific island nation has had a total of 2,681 cases, of which 17 are being treated, 26 have died and 2,638 who recovered. Life has almost returned to normal for the Kiwi Country’s 5 million people. Authorities lifted restrictions on people and economic activity in the country, but mostly closed borders to prevent the virus from entering the country. When assessing New Zealand as the world’s leader in COVID-19 response, experts agreed that the country had taken the most decisive, quick and effective measures to handle the pandemic, with the least impact. to economic and social activity. To achieve this, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government, with the support of the people and business community, has adopted a strategy of “going ahead and going strong.” New Zealand’s anti-epidemic model is basically prevent the virus from entering foreign countries, purchase equipment to protect essential workers, strengthen testing, contact tracing, isolating cases and above all implementing blockade and social distancing society to cut off the chain of infection.The “secret” of this country can be summed up in six words: drastic-timely-synchronous. Immediately after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the SARS-CoV-2 virus as a global health emergency, New Zealand on February 2, 2020 decided to ban the entry via air of foreign nationals. All passengers arriving from China, while New Zealand citizens and arrivals from other countries must self-isolate for 14 days. On March 25, when the number of cases in the country was about 200, New Zealand quickly declared a national emergency and Close the border Although the country’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism. Foreigners entering by air and sea must be tested and isolated at a designated facility. With this step, New Zealand has “locked” the door to the virus entering from abroad. The New Zealand government also urgently establishes a national system to directly register personal protective equipment to identify all equipment manufacturers capable of supporting the fight against the epidemic. Many domestic enterprises have responded and increased domestic production or cooperated with foreign companies to find sources to buy masks, hand sanitizer, face shields and medical gowns. The government is also promoting the establishment of a public-private joint venture to purchase test kits and reagents (chemicals for testing the SARS-CoV-2 virus) from various suppliers. While many countries are also looking to buy these medical items when supplies are scarce, New Zealand has achieved a higher test rate than developed countries like the US or South Korea at the same time, with about 2,200 tested per 100,000 population by mid-May 2020. For contact tracing, New Zealand using both “low technology” and high technology to identify and test all close contacts of COVID-19 patients for 14 days. The primary method of tracing is that officials ask each COVID-19 patient to identify their close contact. In addition, the “NZ COVID Tracer” smartphone application for tracing virus infections was deployed simultaneously. 
People wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Auckland, New Zealand, February 14, 2021. (Photo: THX/VNA) New Zealand has stopped, not just mitigated, the spread of the disease in the community thanks to the rapid adoption of very strong measures. On March 25, 2020, just three days after confirming a domestic infection, authorities implemented a nationwide blockade measure. This is one of the countries applying the strictest blockade order in the world. Although New Zealanders have a high sense of self-discipline, the police still encourage citizens to report violators of epidemic prevention regulations. In just a few weeks, police received more than 336 reports of violations. New Zealand’s disease chart in the first wave of infections last year has demonstrated the effectiveness of anti-epidemic measures. The number of new cases per day began to decrease significantly from 89 cases / day on April 5 to only 9 cases / day two weeks later. On April 27, the government began easing the blockade order, although it still imposed some distancing measures. On May 13, New Zealand did not record any new cases, so on June 8, the government completely lifted the blockade order. During the outbreaks of re-emergence in Auckland city in August 2020 and February 2021, authorities immediately took drastic measures. For example, on February 14, New Zealand locked down Auckland, the largest city in the country to prevent the COVID-19 epidemic after recording three new infections in the community on the same day. Meanwhile, the remaining localities apply level 2 restrictive measures. When the outbreak in the community is extinguished, restrictive measures are also eased step by step with extreme caution. One highlight of New Zealand’s anti-epidemic work is the application of technology. New Zealand was one of the first developed countries to use a smartphone app to track infections. In April, the country also launched a trial of a surveillance “elarm” application to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus, with an accuracy of up to 90% within three days before the patient showed symptoms. such as cough, shortness of breath, and fatigue. Integrated with wearable devices such as smart watches or health monitoring devices, the application uses artificial intelligence to detect sudden changes in the user’s heart rate, temperature body temperature, thereby providing an early warning to detect signs of COVID-19. 
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (centre). (Photo: AFP/VNA) Experts say that New Zealand has proactive, strong, focused, science-based epidemic response measures, and at the same time implements these measures well. In research published in the journal The Lancet Public Health, expert Sarah Jefferies and colleagues point to the factors contributing to New Zealand’s success in the fight against the pandemic are rapid improvements in testing capacity and management. handling cases, the blockade order was for a short time (almost 4 weeks) but very strict. In addition, rapid interventions when the number of cases is low, for example, the warning level increases from 1-4 in five days when the number of cases has not exceeded 1,000 cases. A team of experts from the University of Otago (New Zealand) highlighted the key element of the government’s rapid, science-based risk assessment combined with early and decisive action. The implementation of interventions at various levels (border control, control of community spread, and control of cases) are also effective against the epidemic. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is highly appreciated for her ability to effectively convey the main message to the community – consider fighting the epidemic as the task of a unified collective of 5 million people, thereby being trusted and obeyed by the people. under very strict restrictions. The above-mentioned drastic measures against the epidemic helped reduce human losses with a very low mortality rate, only 0.53 cases per 100,000 people, but also cost the economy due to the closure policy as well as the impact of the pandemic. Translate. New Zealand’s economy recorded a record 2.9% contraction in 2020. However, in terms of the long-term outlook, the economy is forecasted to grow again this year thanks to the government’s economic stimulus package and New Zealand’s ability to restore normal life as before. pandemic. Moreover, it is the good control of the epidemic that has brought New Zealand’s great economic recovery opportunities. The results of a Bloomberg survey conducted in October 2020 with the participation of about 700 people, most of them senior executives in many industries, of which 53% are from large corporations and 47% are from large corporations. SMEs, showing that New Zealand is the country most trusted by business leaders to invest in the future. In fact, the economy of the “kiwi land” has rebounded as business confidence recently improved and the unemployment rate plummeted to 4.7% in the first quarter of 2021. The Ministry of Finance projects gross domestic product (GDP) growth to reach 2.9% in 2021 and gradually accelerate to 4.4% in 2023. Kiwibank’s chief economist, Jarrod Kerr, said the view For the future, a program to roll out vaccines, travel bubbles with Australia and many other countries in 2021 will support solid growth in 2022. New Zealand’s drastic, timely and synchronous approach to the COVID-19 epidemic, from blockade, distance, to tracing and treatment, has become a model of anti-epidemic recognized by the international community. and provide useful lessons to help governments plan how to respond to the current pandemic as well as future pandemic outbreaks.
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