s the world anxiously waits in the confines of their home for the pandemic to die down, New Zealand on Monday claimed that it had “eliminated” the coronavirus. In fact, the lockdown restrictions in the country have now moved from “level four” to “level three,” with new cases in single figures.
“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 very aggressive management of those cases and keep those numbers low and fading out again,” New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
The extremely encouraging news coming from the country instantly saw google searches shoot up in India, where the citizens have been in lockdown for over a month. With more than 31,000 cases and death toll crossing the 1000-mark, Indians desperately wanted to know “How New Zealand controlled coronavirus”.
But if you thought only aam janta showed spiked interest in what New Zealand and its PM Jacinda Ardern were doing “right”, on Monday, Her Majesty, the Queen rang up Ardern and discussed about her country.
“It was such a treat to speak with Her Majesty tonight. Her affection for New Zealand, her interest in what’s happening here and her memory of places and events that are special to us never ceases to amaze me,” Ardern wrote in an Instagram post.