The World Health Organisation (WHO) has praised New Zealand’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
A mini-documentary was shared on social media, highlighting New Zealand’s Covid-19 response and featured Director-General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield.
Paul Garwood, the WHO acting head of leadership and communications, said New Zealand led the way in demonstrating how a government can effectively respond to an emergency and implemented guidance from the WHO.
Garwood explained the reason they did the video was to highlight the actions that other countries have taken to tackle the virus.
“To show that by implementing these evidence based measures, showing political leadership and getting community engagement, it’s possible to suppress and contain the transmission of the virus.”
New Zealand was driven by clear leadership and community engagement of various public health measures.
WHO are actively recognising countries that have headed international advice and implemented the right measures early on.
Dr. Bloomfield explained if the existing pandemic plan was followed from the beginning, New Zealand would not have been able to contain the outbreak, so they changed tack.
The video has been well received around the world with 20 million views just on Facebook.
The feedback on social media has been outstanding. “We have seen lots of commendations from other countries, people saying ‘well done New Zealand, congratulations to your government'”, Garwood noted, “[we were] blown away”.
