New Zealand is officially Covid-19 free, final case has recovered | Hacker News Reader

New Zealand is officially Covid-19 free, final case has recovered

stuff.co.nz

Having had 1504 confirmed and probable cases across the country New Zealand now has no active cases at all. There have been 294,848 tests completed, with testing still being active both in the community and at borders. New Zealand's first case was on February 28th.

> Having had 1504 confirmed and probable cases across the country

There's more than that in my SF neighborhood.

Which is why I tell Americans that it's too late for general testing and tracing, and come up with a realistic plan.

An example would be:

- PSA to go home if you're sick

- gatekeeping at nursing homes and hospitals

I'm curious what the next step for NZ is though. Keep the borders closed for a year until a corona vaccine?

Reopen borders (with appropriate controls) with other countries that have no cases. NZ is in talks with Australia to figure out what the right border controls will be. There are some obvious Pacific Island candidates too. And then Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and so on.

I think the world's bifurcating into two blocs and there's a Viral Curtain between them. Within each bloc it makes sense that there can be free movement -- if you've given up hopes of eradicating it, then you have nothing to lose by visiting another country.

Infected people coming into a virus-free zone are a clear and present danger and will require tests and quarantine. This is what happened for the cast and crew of the Avatar sequels, who recently re-entered New Zealand to finish filming. They were tested at the border and are in hotels for a period of managed isolation.

The end-game is a vaccine, which lets us intermingle without unchecked exponential growth.

If the disease can be treated with drugs, it may become no longer dangerous to the population. This could be another solution.

Note that I don't mind a vaccine, but it's not the only solution.

> The end-game is a vaccine, which lets us intermingle without unchecked exponential growth.

If one can be made. I'm not aware of any approved coronavirus vaccines, and HIV still doesn't have one after almost 40 years. Many Americans are opposed to vaccines (anti-vaxxers) anyway.

Herd immunity FTW!

https://theconversation.com/the-mysterious-disappearance-of-...

There’s medication that will reliably prevent you from getting infected by HIV which is almost functionally identical to a vaccine.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-exposure_prophylaxis

Well, it's good to know about, but Truvada is a pill you have to continue to take, and has a long list of side effects.

Australia and New Zealand have done well with their coronavirus response:

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

Better organised, less politicised and their economies will recover faster because of it.

Great result.

But worth some context.

We were the 60th country with a reported case, providing us time to prepare.

We are a remote country with a lot of low population density space.

We had time and space.

That's some fabulous news.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com