No new COVID-19 case reported in New Zealand for 24 days

On June 8, health officials in New Zealand reported that the final person known to have been infected by the novel coronavirus had recovered.

Moneycontrol News

June 15, 2020 / 12:39 IST

New Zealand has not reported any new cases of the novel coronavirus for 24 days.

All the COVID-19 cases in the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern-led country appear to have completely eradicated the COVID-19. On June 8, health officials in New Zealand reported that the final person known to have been infected by the novel coronavirus had recovered. Thus, the day marked the first time from late February that there had been no active cases of COVID-19 in the country.

However, the health officials cautioned that new cases could be imported into the country, which has closed its borders to everybody but citizens and residents, with some exceptions.

After the recovery of the last COVID-19 patient, PM Ardern said she was confident that New Zealand had halted the spread of the virus but it still must be prepared for more. “We are confident we have eliminated transmission of the virus in New Zealand for now, but elimination is not a point in time, it is a sustained effort,” she said at a news conference.

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COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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