New Zealand, an oasis of normalcy amidst the pandemic

AucklandNew Zealand is one of a small list of countries that are winning (for now) the battle against the pandemic with the covid zero strategy of eliminating the coronavirus. In August, the New Zealand government confined the Auckland region and nipped in the bud the last significant outbreak of the disease. Since then, only a few sporadic cases have appeared in the community, such as the four positive cases that have been detected in the last two weeks. After isolating the infected, health authorities have traced all possible contacts through the covid-19 tracing application, and no further infections have been found. For New Zealanders it has been another small scare that has momentarily altered the normal life they have been enjoying for months: no restrictions of any kind, no safety distance, and not even face masks (they are only mandatory on public transport).

The borders have been closed since March last year, but the economy has opened its doors to local tourists who have been enjoying their summer holidays, with restaurants, bars, amusement parks and nightclubs operating at full capacity.

Mariona Wesselo-Comas is from Barcelona and has lived in the antipodes for nine years: "We went to the first concert of the Six60 tour, which is one of the biggest bands in New Zealand. They played in a sports park in front of 14,000 people. There was no capacity limit and people arrived in buses".

New Zealand has natural advantages that have been key to slowing the spread of the virus, such as the fact that it is an island and has a low population density. Nevertheless, the success also lies in the management of the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, who through fast and radical measures has managed to limit the impact of the pandemic to 2,300 people infected and 25 deaths (in a country of nearly 5 million people).

The Labour leader has won the confidence of citizens (who rewarded her with an overwhelming absolute majority in the general election in October) thanks to a communicative discourse based on proximity and empathy. "She made it clear at the beginning that she would not demand citizens to listen to politicians, but she did ask them to listen to science. All the political decisions she has taken are based on scientific recommendations", the Barcelona native says.

The health team around Ardern is so authoritative that New Zealanders have ended up idolizing the director of Public Health, Ashley Bloomfield, the expert who has guided the population through the pandemic and who is even more popular than the prime minister herself. Behind Bloomfield is a community of scientists advising the government, including epidemiologist Nick Wilson, who in March last year produced projections that predicted the saturation of the health system if the coronavirus was not stopped in time. Wilson is pleased that the prime minister listened to the experts and ordered a seven-week nationwide lockdown: "The government prioritised a welfare budget, that is, a budget that puts more emphasis on the health and welfare of the population than on purely economic measures such as GDP. Under this approach, they implemented drastic measures that saved lives even if they hurt the business sector, which, in turn, was helped with a generous economic package to survive lockdown".

According to the latest data, the virus elimination strategy has also protected the economy: the year has started with a slight drop in unemployment (4.9%) and a positive GDP after a quarter in recession. That is why the government has decided to further shield the borders in the wake of the new variants of the coronavirus that are spreading around the world. If last year there was a sector of the population that demanded the reopening of the country as soon as possible, this year no one has flinched when the prime minister admitted that, given the slow pace of vaccinations, the borders will probably remain closed until the end of 2021.