Australia, New Zealand contemplate reopening borders

Pakistan News & Features Services

New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, declared on May 27 that a draft blueprint on safely starting travel between New Zealand and Australia will be presented to both governments in early June.

She revealed having spoken to her Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, on May 26 and there was enthusiasm for travel to resume on both sides. 

“We are working to move on this as quickly as we can. We are both very keen on it across both sides of the ditch. It won’t be too long before we are ready,” Ardern remarked during a press conference. 

Neighbours Australia and New Zealand happen to be among the most popular travel destinations to each other. Reportedly as many as 1.5 million Australians had visited New Zealand 2019. 

The two countries have been discussing the possibility of a travel bubble between them over the past couple of weeks after having slowed the spread of the novel coronavirus in their respective territories. 

The government and airport officials, besides airlines and health specialists have been working on the plan to re-open their borders with each other.

New Zealand becomes coronavirus free

Pakistan News & Features Services

By discharging it last remaining coronavirus (COVID-19) patient from hospital and having seen no new cases, New Zealand has become free from the virus on May 27.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Director General of Health, informed media at the COVID-19 press briefing in Auckland that he reckoned it was the first time in months when no patients with the disease were being treated at hospitals. 

“Currently there is nobody in hospital with COVID-19 following the discharge of a person from Middlemore Hospital,” he declared. 

New Zealand’s first case of coronavirus was detected on February 28, according to the Ministry of Health records. 

The country has been widely praised for its handling of the pandemic, with just 1,154 confirmed cases and 21 deaths in the three-month period. 

Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, has earned worldwide recognition for having taken a hardline approach to the country’s lockdown in a bid to stop the spread of the disease which paid handsome dividends.

New Zealand announce elimination of COVID-19

Pakistan News & Features Services

New Zealand, one of the most disciplined nations on earth, has made the welcome announcement of having eliminated coronavirus (COVID-19) from the country as the restrictions have been eased from level four to level three with new cases down to single figures.

The level three ruling went into effect on April 28, which allowed businesses to partially reopen with some restrictions, including requiring physical distancing of two meters outside of home. 

New Zealand's Director General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, had declared on April 27 that with just one new case, four probable cases and one new death they had the confidence of having achieved their goal of elimination. 

"Our goal is elimination. And again, that doesn't mean eradication but it means we get down to a small number of cases so that we are able to stamp out any cases and any outbreak that might come out," he added. 

New Zealand's popular Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, however, warned that the country needed to remain alert even though coronavirus was currently eliminated. 

"So as we have said elimination means we may well reach zero but we may well then have small numbers of cases coming up again, that doesn't mean we have failed, it just means that we are in the position to have that zero tolerance approach to have a very aggressive management of those cases and keep those numbers low and fading out again," she remarked. 

"It's been nearly five weeks living and working in ways that just two months ago would have been impossible. But we did. And we have done it together," the Prime Minister observed while praising the efforts of New Zealanders.