New Zealand Is Crushing the Curve

Why the country seems to be getting so far ahead of the pandemic

When it comes to flattening the curve, there’s a clear leader: New Zealand. The country is doing such a remarkable job at keeping the spread down, that it’s reported less than 20 total deaths from Covid-19 as of Wednesday afternoon.

Experts say there are a few reasons the country has been so successful. For one thing, its 5 million people are spread out, so cities are not even especially crowded. The country also implemented early distancing measures and aggressive testing, tracing, and isolating.

Some have questioned whether widespread infections will happen everywhere at some point, so perhaps the country is just delaying the inevitable? Other experts see it very differently. As Devi Sridhar, the chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, writes for The Guardian, New Zealand and Australia (which also appears to be keeping cases and deaths under control) “are in a better position to ease lockdown earlier and get their economy and society going…