Topline
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who has been widely praised for steering one of the world’s most successful responses to Covid-19, on Monday revealed that she had put President-elect Joe Biden in contact with the nation’s health officials in efforts to share tactics on how to battle the devastating pandemic that has killed more than 256,000 Americans.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media during a press conference at Parliament on November 6, … [+] 2020.
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Key Facts
Ardern said at a press conference on Monday: “I offered to him and his team access to New Zealand health officials in order to share their experience on things we’ve learnt on our Covid-19 journey,” Reuters reported.
The offer came in the midst of the two leaders’ first meeting since Biden won the U.S. election, and as Biden’s efforts to tackle the pandemic are being hampered at home by the Trump Administration’s refusal to begin the transition.
New Zealand, which has successfully battled community transmission of Covid-19 among its population of nearly 5 million people, has recorded just 2,030 infections and 25 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has consistently blown through record after record case numbers, hospitalizations and daily death tolls, with a seven-day average of almost 1,500 deaths daily, according to the Covid Tracking Project, the highest number since May.
Key Background
As the pandemic rages on in the U.S., surging past 12 million infections, nearing 260,000 deaths and 84,000 people hospitalized, Biden has set about establishing and meeting with his coronavirus task force, while President Donald Trump has faced questions over his apparent inaction and failure to turn up to his own Covid-19 task force meetings for five months, instead using his time to launch unsuccessful bids to overturn Biden’s election victory. In some of his first remarks since being projected the winner of the election, Biden warned that more people could die if the Trump Administration continues to block his transition, while Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S.’ top infectious diseases official, has voiced concerns that this could hamper efforts to distribute a coronavirus vaccine, which could be on the horizon as all three front-runners—Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca—have released successful data and Pfizer-BioNTech have applied for emergency authorization with the Food and Drug Administration.
Surprising Fact
Trump snubbed a key part of the virtual G20 leadership summit on Saturday, which was discussing pandemic preparedness with EU, African and South American leaders, and instead opting to go golfing.
Tangent
New Zealand recorded just two new cases of coronavirus on Monday, the nation’s health authorities said, while there are just 52 active cases there. The nation’s successful handling of the pandemic has been attributed to widespread and early testing (1.2 million tests have so far been carried out), clear communication around public health measures and a test-trace-isolate system established early on. New Zealand’s successful response in dealing with the virus comes even despite the country reporting their first case around February 28, more than one month after the U.S. reported its first travel-related case on January 21.
