New Zealand, once a global success, admits having failed in the face of Covid-19

After 18 months of a Covid-19 elimination strategy, New Zealand announced the end of coronavirus “total elimination” plan, to make room for a new model that will rely on vaccination rates to ease containment restrictions. This has generated public concern and criticism from experts for moving towards less stringent measures with a slowly moving vaccination plan ahead and with uncertainty due to the Delta variant.

The Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, which garnered great popularity and popular support for its handling of the pandemic, assured that the virus elimination strategy “was important because we didn’t have vaccines”, but it was time to change the measurements.

“Now we have them, so we can start to change the way we do things. We have more options and we have good reason to be optimistic about the future, but we cannot rush into it, ”he said at a press conference a few days ago.

“Vaccines mean that in the future we can do things differently, but even then our strategy remains: As long as the cases persist, we want to control the virus, end the cases and prevent hospitalizations. With vaccines, we have more options, ”the official said.

New Zealand best prepared for global disaster

This is the first time in the pandemic to date that the New Zealand government publicly acknowledges that it will put aside the positioning that has earned it positioning itself as thhe best performing country in the fight against the pandemic, with around 4,352 infections and 27 deaths.

However, the authorities have not been able to control the epidemic affecting the city of Auckland since August, the worst since the start of the pandemic with 1,314 contaminations despite the strict containment which has been in force for seven weeks in the city.

Almost two months after an outbreak due to the Delta variant, Ardern has announced that restrictions in the city will be eased in stages., with the authorization for groups of up to 10 people from a maximum of two different homes to meet outdoors, and the reopening of nursery schools.

Strict lockdowns, he said, could end when 90 percent of the population has the full immunization schedule, a figure still far away: so far, 46 percent of people over 12 have received the drugs. two doses and 76 percent have at least one.

Despite the new openings and the change in guidelines, Ardern felt that “It is still necessary to contain and control the virus as much as possible” to guarantee public health.

Jacinda Ardern, the most effective leader in the fight against the coronavirus

Jacinda Ardern’s challenge

For policy analysts and government consultants, this change implies a great challenge for the figure of Jacinda Ardern and acceptance by the citizens of New Zealand, as stated. The Guardian.

With a very convincing move campaign and concrete results, The prime minister’s work garnered strong support, with polls exceeding 80% of the green light for most of the pandemic.

Ben Thomas, communications consultant and former national government staffHe noted: “Part of the Prime Minister’s problem is that she has done a good job uniting New Zealanders in this cause, convincing them, rightly, that elimination is an achievable goal and instilling real realism. fear of the virus. It is something very difficult to overcome ”.

Clint Smith, a former communications strategist at Ardern, estimated that with this change “there will be continued restrictions, more cases, more deaths, and that’s something New Zealand hasn’t really seen yet.”

The elimination strategy, the political communications specialist said, “It was something New Zealanders could be proud of, it brought us together and became a common goal.”

Now, he stressed, the challenge will be that the government will have to find a new common goal, which will probably be vaccination rates, which for the moment are not advancing at high speed. “This is the big challenge Jacinda and her team face now.”

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