New Zealand Claims ‘Elimination’ of CCP Virus

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during the All of Government COVID-19 national response update in Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, on April 13, 2020. (Mark Mitchelll-Pool/Getty Images)

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and health officials have claimed the country eliminated the CCP virus and also announced the easing of some stay-at-home measures.

Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand’s Director-General of Health, said there was one new case, four “probable cases,” and a new death.

The number of cases “does give us confidence that we’ve achieved our goal of elimination, which ... that never meant zero but it does mean we know where our cases are coming from,” Bloomfield said, reported CNN.

He continued: “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.”

Ardern, meanwhile, was asked about whether her country has eliminated the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus and said it is “currently” the case.

“There is no widespread undetected community transmission in New Zealand. We have won that battle,” Ardern told reporters on Monday. “But we must remain vigilant if we are to keep it that way.”

On Sunday, there were no new cases of the CCP virus, a type of novel coronavirus that emerged in China last year, while a total of 19 people have died in New Zealand.

Starting Tuesday, some non-essential business, healthcare, and schools can resume in New Zealand, which has a population of 4.8 million people, according to the BBC.

“We are opening up the economy, but we’re not opening up people’s social lives,” Ardern told reporters.