As countries around the world work to “flatten the curve” of coronavirus infections, one has set itself a far more ambitious target. New Zealand plans to wipe out COVID-19 completely.
“We have the opportunity to do something no other country has achieved—elimination of the virus,” Jacinda Ardern, the country’s Prime Minister, said Apr. 16.
The strategy appears to be working. Fewer than 1,500 people have been infected with the virus in the country of almost 5 million. Only 17 have died. On April 24, just five new cases were confirmed. (By comparison, Colorado, which is roughly the same geographic size as New Zealand, with a population of 5.8 million, has more than 11,000 cases confirmed and more than 550 people have died.)
