There are no new cases of coronavirus in New Zealand today and Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says he wants to keep it that way.

It is the first time in close to six weeks that testing has not uncovered a single case across a 24 hour period.

There are no additional deaths to report and the death toll remains at 20. The total number of cases is 1487. One probable case had since been upgraded to confirmed but that does not change the total number of cases. There are four people in hospital.

"Clearly these are encouraging figures today but it is just one moment in time," Bloomfield said.

It is cause for celebration and it was symbolic of the effort that everyone had put in, Bloomfield said.

"This is the first day we've had no new cases and we want to keep it that way."

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12329400

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New Zealand says it has stopped community transmission of Covid-19, effectively eliminating the virus.

With new cases in single figures for several days - one on Sunday - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the virus was "currently" eliminated.

But officials have warned against complacency, saying it does not mean a total end to new coronavirus cases.

The news comes hours before New Zealand is set to move out of its toughest level of social restrictions.

From Tuesday, some non-essential business, healthcare and education activity will be able to resume.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-52436658

While most countries are working on ways to contain the coronavirus, New Zealand has set itself a much more ambitious goal: eliminating it altogether. And experts believe the country could pull it off.

The virus “doesn’t have superpowers,” said Helen Petousis-Harris, a vaccine expert at the University of Auckland. “Once transmission is stopped, it’s gone.”

Geography has helped. If any place could be described as socially distant it would be New Zealand, surrounded by stormy seas, with Antarctica to the south. With 5 million people spread across an area the size of Britain, even the cities aren’t overly crowded.

“We have the opportunity to do something no other country has achieved: elimination of the virus,” Ardern told reporters last week. “But it will continue to need a team of 5 million behind it.”

https://time.com/5825390/new-zealand-coronavirus

On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that what New Zealand calls its Category 4 measures — the most intense level — would last until end of day April 27, after which the country will revert to Category 3, a level with greater freedoms.

"We have done what few countries have been able to do — we have stopped a wave of devastation," said Ardern,  who has received widespread praise both at home and abroad for taking early, decisive action against COVID-19.

"The number of cases that each person with the virus passes it on to is now 0.48, less than half a person each. Overseas, the average is 2.5 people, so we have among the lowest number of confirmed cases per 100,000 people in the world."

As of Tuesday, the country of five million people had registered 1,445 cases and just 13 deaths, most of them in nursing homes.

The majority of those infected have also now recovered.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/covid-new-zealand-eradicate-chris-brown-cbc-1.5540021?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

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New Zealand has reached a new low for coronavirus cases under lockdown, and recorded no further deaths after three were reported over the Easter weekend. 

Director-General of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, at a Sunday press conference, said the fewer new cases were encouraging, but warned there may still be more deaths from a group of rest home residents afflicted by Covid-19. 

There were 18 cases of coronavirus to report from Saturday, a number fewer than any daily total since March 22, three weeks ago. Of these, 14 tested positive for the virus and 4 were probable cases. 

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120975520/coronavirus-health-officials-provide-covid19-update-at-1pm-after-two-days-of-deaths?cid=app-android

Its more than 35,000km (21,750 miles) of coastline was always going to be Australia’s strongest advantage in keeping coronavirus at bay, but even so, the speed with which it was used was breathtaking.

Without warning on Thursday 19 March, the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced: “Australia is closing its borders to all-non citizens”. The ban was effective from 9pm the next day.

Australia and neighbouring New Zealand, almost unique among anglophone countries, have so far been successful in largely suppressing the spread of Covid-19 within their countries, and in particular, keeping deaths low.

Australia, with a population of 25 million, has had just over 6,000 infections, and 50 deaths. New Zealand, a country of 5 million people, which closed its borders the day before Australia, has had 1,200 infections and so far only one death from Covid-19.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/have-australia-new-zealand-stopped-covid-19-in-its-tracks-coronavirus

New Zealand has recorded just 29 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, but the prime minister says a decision on changing the alert level will only be made two days before the lockdown ends.

It is the fourth day in a row there has been a day-on-day drop.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said there are 23 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and six probable cases in New Zealand today. That brings the total number of cases to 1239.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/413863/number-of-new-cases-of-covid-19-in-nz-plummets-to-29

New Zealand, which saw its first confirmed case on Feb. 28, is on track to stop its outbreak before it ever had a chance to begin. That's likely thanks to early and decisive nationwide action by its government.

The small country of nearly 4.8 million people was able to quickly contain the virus and appears to have a real chance of wiping it out entirely, The Washington Post reported. As of April 7, according to the New Zealand Ministry of Health, the country has logged 1,160 confirmed and suspected cases in the country and just one death. More people recovered in the last 24 hours (65) than were found to have been infected (54), suggesting that the local outbreak is declining.

The key to success has been a straightforward, two-pronged strategy led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Early in March, according to The Washington Post, the country began to instruct all international visitors — in normal times, the country gets as many as 4 million tourists a year — to self-isolate for 14 days. Then on March 19, the tourism-dependent nation fully closed its borders to international visitors, a move that was likely effective because it came before community spread took off locally.

Just as importantly, according to The Washington Post, the Ardern government pushed a strong "stay home" message beginning early in the crisis, and implemented a strong social distancing order as of March 23. The order shut schools and nonessential services and banned many outdoor activities. New Zealanders (including immigrants) have also received recurring payments from the government designed to make it easier to people to avoid working. A member of Ardern's government caught mountain biking and beach going with his family even faced public condemnation from the prime minister.

https://www.livescience.com/new-zealand-coronavirus.html