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Going by the various international media reports, in New Zealand, over 1,500 people contracted the virus while 22 succumbed to the disease ever since the outbreak of the virus in the country. However, in past 17 days, no new case was reported.
An Associated Press report on Monday quoted Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who said that “It has been 17 days since the last new case was reported in New Zealand, during which time an additional 40,000 people have been tested, and Monday also marked the first time since February when there has been no active cases.”
“New Zealand had eliminated the disease after health officials said the last known infected person had recovered,” PM Arden said.
After following a strict 75-day nationwide shut, the South Pacific nation with population of over 5 million, has now announced to ease down lockdown restrictions in the country. The PM has permitted weddings, funerals, public transport to resume without limitations. However, border controls would not be lifted even though the government is set to roll back all containment measures.
Besides New Zealand, there are eight other countries that have managed to fight all odd against the deadly Coronavirus.
Holy See: The tiny jurisdiction within Rome, Holy See last week announced that it had zero Covid-19 cases. A very small nation that had reported merely 12 cases, said on June 6 that all the patients have recovered from the disease.
Montenegro: European country Montenegro declared itself to be corona-free on May 24 after there were no active Covid-19 patients. The country had registered it’s first corona case on March 17 following which, the government resorted to strict measures such as making masks mandatory and shutting down economic activities except the essential services.
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Saint Kitts and Nevis: The West Indies stamped out the contagious virus and became Covid-19 free on May 19. The country had recorded 15 confirmed cases following which, the state had order a curfew, closing its airports, schools and non-essential businesses.
Eritrea: Ten days prior to Montenegro, the East Afrrican country Eritrea announced that there are no active cases now in the country. After a lockdown that was enforced in April, the country uplifted restrictions on May 15 following zero COVID cases there.
East Timor: Similarly, a south-east Asian island country East Timor stamped out Coronavirus successfully and declared itself to be fully recovered on May 15. In order to contain the spread of the virus, East Timor had put travel restrictions for non-nationals who had visited China as early as February 10.
Fiji: At the time when Asian and European countries has just started to deal with the pandemic, Fiji by April 20 had declared itself to be free of Coronavirus. In order to contain the spread of the virus, country’s Prime Minister had restricted international flights, imposed a 15-day mandatory quarantine for people arriving and closed schools and non-essential businesses.
Papua New Guinua: The Pacific nation with the population of nearly 9 million people declared itself to be free of the novel Coronavirus on May 4. Though the country had reported only eight cases, it took a swift action and banned travellers from Asia and closed its border with Indonesia.
Seychelles: Another small country Seychelles has won the battle against corona as all the 11 cases of Covid-19 have fully recovered from the contagious disease.
The number of COVID-19 cases in world continued to witness a sharp rise with the overall tally crossing the 6.9-million mark worldwide. As per the Worldmeter figures, the number of positive patients were reported at 6,970,630 with 401,964 deaths. Till now, 3,410,994 people have been treated from the Coronavirus infection.