zero-COVID

…spreading, China implemented strict “zero-COVID” policies aimed at keeping the number of cases as close to zero as possible through measures including strict lockdowns, quarantines, and mass testing. As a result, infection cases and deaths were relatively lower in China compared with other wealthy countries. Despite residents’ initial support…

…forced to jettison its “zero COVID” policy in response to the challenges of combating the outbreak of the more infectious Delta variant of COVID-19, which spiked in New Zealand in November 2021. The next wave of the virus to hit the islands, the Omicron variant, dwarfed the incidences of…

…Ardern to abandon her “zero COVID” policy. The focus of her government’s response to the pandemic shifted from lockdowns to an emphasis on vaccination and acceptance of “living with the virus.”  Because of its earlier dependence on walling itself off from transmission of the virus, however, New Zealand had…