NEW ZEALAND COVID 19 FREE DECLARATION IS A CAMAOUFLAGE
Posted on June 13th, 2020
BY M D P DISSANAYAKE
New Zealand has issued a new travel advice on 8 June at 11.59 pm, moving to Alert Level 1, with the advice Do not travel overseas at this time. Transport and transit options to return to New Zealand have reduced significantly. Even booked flights may be cancelled.”
The New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared her country as the first Covid 19 free nation. This appears to be based on intentionally and technically manipulated statistics.
There were appeals from NZ work visit holders, ( who are neither permanent residents nor citizens, but may qualify for PR if they meet the threshold requirements in future), who left temporarily before the outbreak of pandemic, due to lack of employment opportunities in NZ. They have been remitting foreign exchange earnings saved from their overseas income to NZ. They are currently living overseas and lost jobs due to Covid 19 and facing the risk of contacting the deadly virus. Therefore requests have been made to make arrangements for them to return to NZ. The NZ government did not allow any of them to come back to the country and sealed off Air Ports due to fear of imported Covid 19”.
Had NZ allowed those who work overseas in Italy, Brazil, NSW and Victoria to return home, then NZ statistics would have changed dramatically.
In comparison, Sri Lanka, much poorer nation, brought back thousands of its workers back home for safety. Some of them were brought back from countries worst affected by Covid 19. Hundreds of Sri Lankans stranded in Australia and New Zealand were also brought back to Sri Lanka.
The data shows, in Sri Lanka there are no new cases of Covid 19 outside the declared number of patients, the existing stock numbers related to previously identified Navy and new cases amongst Sri Lankan expatriates returned to the island. Unlike Jacinda Arden, Sri Lanka has a compassionate President and Prime Minister who looked after its citizens anywhere in the world, when they are in trouble. This program to bring back Sri Lankan in trouble waters are ongoing, regardless of its end results on Covid 19 national statistics!
Now lets see the statistical analysis between NZ and Sri Lanka.
1. Population: NZ 4.9 million compared to Sri Lanka 22 million;
2. Land area in square kms: NZ 268,000 vs. Sri Lanka 66,000.
3. Number of persons per square kms: NZ 18 persons vs Sri Lanka 333 persons.
4. With only 18 persons per square km, SOCIAL DISTANCING IN NEW ZEALAND is a daily occurrence, even without Covid 19, compared with 333 persons per square km, SOCIAL DISTANCING IN SRI LANKA is a tough job in a densely dispersed country to be implemented. In fact NZ is appropriately nick named as GHOST COUNTRY!
5. Total Covid 19 cases in NZ was 1,184 with 22 DEATHS. Total Covid 19 cases in SL are: 1,869 with 11 deaths;
6. Covid 19 total confirmed cases as a percentage of population in NZ 0.02%, compares with SL 0.008%,
7. NZ has an excellent FREE Healthcare System , with minor exceptions such as cosmetic surgery;
8. NZ is a sparsely populated country 18 persons per square km, with an excellent Public Health System, yet it had 22 deaths, almost 2% of total Covid 19 cases, compared with 0.59% deaths in Sri Lanka.
We hope NZ Prime Minister will open the country and allow its visa holders who work abroad to return to the island.
The statistics should not be manipulated to favour a political stunt, at the expense of human lives.
June 14th, 2020 at 4:14 am
Man, Don’t insult a leader and a country who took the best measures in time to contain COVD-19. They declared NZ is free of COVID-19 because at the movement, it is free of this virus. Hope they will formulate strict quarantine measures when they start opening their borders for international visitors though tourism is their main foreign income stream. Opening borders for temporary visa holders is a secondary thing, when other countries still struggling to bring their own citizens back. Australia and New Zealand are ranked as the top two countries in the world having best quarantine services at the border, but with COVID-19, New Zealand surpassed Australia.
June 14th, 2020 at 4:40 am
We ask NZ government to bring back to temporary visa holders immediately, who are seeking mercy from a Rich Country, which has so much land space. Let it become a HOST COUNTRY instead of GHOST COUNTRY.
At this moment we don’t need Bill Boards, each nation need to look after its citizens or visa holders, who work overseas and contribute to the foreign exchange exchange earnings into the struggling economy of NZ.
But NZ PM is a stubborn Lady, she has lot to learn from Mr Scott Morrison and Rajapakse brothers.
June 14th, 2020 at 6:14 am
Mate, New Zealand PM is not stubborn, she is following the medical and quarantine advice to the letter. That is their success. Entire world has to take that as an example.
June 15th, 2020 at 5:17 pm
How countries are faring so far during the Covid-19 Pandemic!
It is not easy to compare the response of different countries with one yardstick. It is also not quite correct to say that the New Zealand Covid-19 Free Declaration is a camouflage. I should say that New Zealand handled the situation in a fair and humanitarian way and with a firm hand at the helm.
New Zealand housed and monitored 7755 people in hotel rooms from 10 April to 19 May. 12 of them were tested positive during this period. The total number of confirmed and probable cases were 1504. New Zealand is now declared Corvid-19 free and no more ‘social distancing’! The borders remain close for the time being as Corvid-19 still continue to play havoc around the world.
The effort in New Zealand was to be Corvid-19 free at the earliest possible day and hit the road running to get the economy moving.
In Sri Lanka, it was largely a humanitarian exercise. The economy already at the rock bottom thanks to near five years of disastrous Jadapalanaya there was not much of an economy to rescue. What they had to do to date has been in spite of a belligerent political opposition who were opposed to anything and everything that the Government could do with an ever-watchful eye to discredit the administration. The former Leader of the Opposition who offered to give free sanitary pads to women as an election promise at the last Presidential Election, even went on to the extent of prescribing medications – Chloroquine now universally accepted as injurious to those with Covid-19 infections!
President Gotabhaya did an excellent job of giving unwavering leadership as well as coordinating all the activities of the relevant organisations to combat the pandemic effectively. All actions were taken in consultation with the health authorities, the Armed Services and the security and intelligence services in tow. In fact, the top authority was the Director General of Health Services and the buck stopped with him literally. The only trump card Sri Lanka had and has is the Free Healthcare System – curative and preventative network that extend to every nook and corner of the Island.
The concept of ‘chase and apprehend’ policy was employed using the State Intelligence Services who helped identify and quarantine or hospitalize where necessary the infected, the close family and those that came into close contact with lightning speed. The Armed Services were used to establish and maintain professionally close to 50 well-disciplined Quarantine facilities, according to health services guidelines. The praises of those leaving these quarantine facilities after completing the requisite quarantine period speak for themselves of the quality of love, care and service they received at their hands.
Sri Lanka continued to bring back her citizens from around the world beginning with students from the Hubei Province at the height of the pandemic in China, then students stranded all over the world, pilgrims and others soon as air travel was possible to those distant destinations. At home stranded tourists were well looked after by a generous population as well as business leaders.
The rumour mongering machines of the political opposition are busy saying that the government is not divulging the actual number of the infected. This is somewhat foolhardy as it is not easy to hide any one dead let alone infected as people are well informed of the symptoms of the disease and are not afraid to tell on each other! Moreover actual figures have to be passed on to the WHO almost daily!
Militarily powerful countries such as the USA, China, Britain, Russia, France gave prominence to maintaining their position of power – economically and militarily. These countries made humanitarian considerations a lesser priority ahead of power and economy. All except China allowed ‘herd immunity’ or ‘natural survival of the fittest’ concept priority though not saying so in so many words. China attacked the pandemic almost as if it was war and has largely succeeded!
Others gave prominence to their economies – these include Germany, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, India and to a lesser extent New Zealand. In countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and a host of similar other countries, the Covid-19 situation is in free fall due to a host of other reasons including cultural, religious and the level of poverty or neglect.
Countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Sri Lanka have fared well in terms of – the overall number of fatalities and infected – all well under one per million of population dead and those infected under one hundred per million of population. The former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka adduce these to the fact these countries are largely Buddhist and hence under the protection of well-meaning gods – perhaps eyeing the Buddhist vote at the coming General Election!
All over the world ‘near now or former authoritarian countries’ have fared well, their populations being rather ‘compliant’! Highly medically sanitized countries have fared worst probably for having depleted immunity. The population density too is a factor that should be taken into consideration in comparisons. This though is not entirely a true indicator as high or very high concentrations can happen in the cities of even sparsely populated countries! The spread and control of Corvid-19 at the Dharavi slum in Mumbai, India is a classic case now under the microscope.
In the final analysis when all is ‘over or near over’ there must be an honest assessment as to how different countries fared during the Covid-19 pandemic taking into consideration all factors – strategic, economic, social, cultural and religious! I am fairly confident that Sri Lanka’s performance would be found at or near the very top!