The New Zealand Ministry of Health has confirmed that they now have no active cases and no new cases of COVID-19
The Health Ministry has said that they were notified by Auckland Regional Public Health that the one remaining case has been free of symptoms of the coronavirus for 48 hours, and the person is considered to have recovered from COVID-19.
The person who recovered from the last known case of the coronavirus in the country has now been released from isolation, the ministry has said.
This final case of COVID-19 had been linked to the St Margaret’s Hospital and Rest Home cluster in Auckland.
This comes after New Zealand announced that they no longer had any COVID-19 patients in hospitals, as the nation marked five consecutive days without any new cases of the coronavirus.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield, the Director-General of Health, said in a statement:
“This is really good news for the person concerned, and it’s also something the rest of New Zealand can take heart from,”
The ministry said the individual was listed as a probable case earlier on but was then removed from that list after they tested negative for COVID-19.
The Ministry said that they were later included in the national tally as a confirmed case, after they again became unwell at a later date, before then testing positive.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield has said that it’s the first time since the 28th of February that there have been no active cases in the nation.
There has also been no new cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand for the 17th day in a row, with no further coronavirus-related deaths in the country.
The last reported new case of the coronavirus in the country was on the 22nd of May.
Dr Bloomfield was present at a press briefing at 3pm in the country where Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave further updates on New Zealand’s coronavirus response following her cabinet’s meeting where they decided to move down from alert level 2, to alert level 1.
New Zealand’s government has decided that they will lift all of the previous restrictions in place against COVID-19 almost immediately, except for its stringent border controls to prevent any new cases from getting into the country, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said:
“Our collective results I think speak for ourselves,”
“This was what the sacrifice of our team of five million was for – to keep one another safe and to keep one another well.”
James Shaw, the climate change minister said: “I know it’s a Monday and all, but I reckon I might pop that bottle of bubbly tonight and raise a glass to all the people of this fine country. Ka pai Aotearoa,” using a Māori phrase that means ‘good job, New Zealand.’
As early as late April, New Zealand reportedly stopped the spread of COVID-19, meaning the virus was effectively eliminated within the country at that time.
