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<p>The real answer is that it is hasn't. New Zealand has merely just managed to manage it. But how it did so is a story that other countries should have paid attention to.</p>
<p>NZ's answer was to go hard early. So while other nations were umming and ahhhing New Zealand locked everything down. Sure it took a couple of weeks to make that decision but when it did it was instant. But how did this work whereas others failed?</p>
<p>Geographically New Zealand has a number of things going for it. It's made of three main islands - North Island, South Island, and Stewart Island. This means that there is literally only two ways into New Zealand. Air or sea. Shut down the airports and seaports and you shut down the entire access to the country. Obviously you can't do this easily with landlocked countries or even countries who have coastlines but a shared border. Just ask America with their wall. So New Zealand had that going for it.</p>
<p>But New Zealand also has one other thing going for it. For better or worse New Zealand trusts that their government is acting in their best interests. We're willing to go along with it. As such when the government said that we'll be going to Alert Level 4 we said "Let's do this". Do you know what it's like to see 5 million people work together for a common good? Sure there were some selfish individuals who said "No thanks" and tried to break the rules but then by and large the entire country turned on them and they backed down. It was a pretty beautiful thing really.</p>
<p>I realise that some countries despise their governments. I realise that some countries are corrupt and only look out for themselves. It's for this reason that I believe that in part the people of those countries are as much to blame as the government's inactions. I know that's hard to hear but truthfully, think about the country you live in. Would you trust your government is doing the right thing if it went all in in a lockdown situation like what New Zealand did? Would you listen to it if it made that decision to shut down your entire country?</p>
<p>This is why I feel New Zealand got the better of COVID. It wasn't just the fact that the government said "We're shutting everything down, please stay at home unless you're an essential worker (I was)". No, the reason I think New Zealand got the better of it was because even if we didn't trust the government we went along with them anyway. We had a whinge for sure but by and large we decided it's in our best interest as well. And when anyone tried to do their own thing (our politicians included) the entire country turned on them and set them straight.</p>
<p>We hated being in lockdown but we worked hard to make it work and we did. But sadly, I've seen the news in other countries and I seriously doubt a lockdown would have worked even if implemented. The States tried state by state but nothing national. But seriously, if The Don had told you that the nation is in lockdown would you Americans put down your prejudice against the yellow faced buffoon with the mind control wig?</p>
<p>Sometimes the hardest thing to do is look inward but you prove yourselves the bigger person when you listen to the ones you hate and do as they ask. There were many in New Zealand that hated the government for imposing this restriction. There were many that derided the government for taking away their freedom for a month. But New Zealand can stand proud in the world that we just did it anyway. We're still not there. We've still locked the borders and we still put people in isolation if they do come into the country. But you know what? Our last recorded case of community transmission was 100 days ago. Most of the new cases are from people returning from overseas who are immediately thrown into isolation until they are proved to be fit for reintegration into society. We've made mistakes, as have individuals but by and large we beat the thing because as a nation we worked together. We left prejudices to one side and we worked together. Having seen the reports from other countries where people just go about their day regardless of whether or not they have the disease it just seems so surreal to think that 5 million people worked together to keep this thing under control.</p>
<p>New Zealand beat COVID by being reasonable. That's the plainest I can state it. We looked at the big picture and said "You know what, this is going to be bad no matter how we look at it so let's go with the least worst scenario". We looked the virus square in the face and said "There's billions of you but there's 5 million of us so sod off". We locked away our old people, our young people, our fit people, and our sick people. The only people allowed out were medical staff, supermarket workers, service station attendants, and we posties and couriers. This limited contact with others and ensured that the foundations of the country were able to carry on working.</p>
<p>And so here's our stats as of today:</p>
<p><strong>Total Cases:</strong> 1569<br/><strong>Confirmed Cases:</strong> 1219<br/><strong>Probable Cases:</strong> 350<br/><strong>Active Cases:</strong> 23<br/><strong>Deaths:</strong> 23<br/><strong>Recovered:</strong> 1524</p>
<p>Those stats are to be proud of.</p>
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