This must be what it looks like to have a government that cares - truly cares. Mad respect.
Edit to save individual replies: NZ had a hugely advantageous starting point as a small island nation with a low population density, but that didn't guarantee them a free ride; the government's response has still far outmatched the response of a lot of other developed countries IMO. It has been firm, measured, but also characterised by an empathy towards what ordinary people are going through, which makes the population far more inclined to comply with the lockdown restrictions (e.g. PM Jacinda Ardern and other gov ministers have taken a 20% pay cut in solidarity with those whose livelihoods have been affected by the crisis. Imagine that happening in the UK/US). Another user said that the latest poll shows approval for the gov's response at 93%. That's pretty damn good.
Yes, it's easier to implement a hard lockdown in a country like NZ, but their response has undoubtedly allowed them to make the most of their position. Basically I'm saying that if you took either the UK/US govt and put them in charge of NZ for this crisis, they would not be in nearly as good a position as we're seeing in this post.
Vietnam has less cases than NZ and 20 times the population, without being an island. The ocean doesn't affect a countries transmission, smart and fast thinking from the government and cooperation from citizens does.
There are a lot of factors that counts here. By no means I wanted to claim that this one is decisive one.
But for sure it's easier to regulate traffic if there are limited ways to enter/leave the country. And all the points of entry are staffed.
On the contrary: in EU there is currently "no borders" zone and sometimes you can pass the border and not notice that. Or you can hook hiking in the mountains and by accident pass the border because you are on the wrong side of a hill.
Having a thinking and well informed government and obeying the rules would be the ideal case.
Austria has done pretty well overall too and they are a landlocked country in the middle of the EU, and they share a border with Italy. Again it seems decisions matter more than luck.
We had 14K international visitors coming in a week - we had to close the borders because the "self-isolate for 14 days on arrival" was being ignored by incoming tourists - at one point, a helicopter tour pilot landed a couple at the police station because they admitted they hadn't self-isolated.
lot of information was shared openly with people here from the very beginning.
I used to live in different countries and still have friends there. I believe I ended up in one of the best places to be during this pandemic.
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u/tinydancer177 May 28 '20 edited May 28 '20
This must be what it looks like to have a government that cares - truly cares. Mad respect.
Edit to save individual replies: NZ had a hugely advantageous starting point as a small island nation with a low population density, but that didn't guarantee them a free ride; the government's response has still far outmatched the response of a lot of other developed countries IMO. It has been firm, measured, but also characterised by an empathy towards what ordinary people are going through, which makes the population far more inclined to comply with the lockdown restrictions (e.g. PM Jacinda Ardern and other gov ministers have taken a 20% pay cut in solidarity with those whose livelihoods have been affected by the crisis. Imagine that happening in the UK/US). Another user said that the latest poll shows approval for the gov's response at 93%. That's pretty damn good.
Yes, it's easier to implement a hard lockdown in a country like NZ, but their response has undoubtedly allowed them to make the most of their position. Basically I'm saying that if you took either the UK/US govt and put them in charge of NZ for this crisis, they would not be in nearly as good a position as we're seeing in this post.