New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that today there were no new covid-19 cases, which reflects the fact that the lockdown has been helpful to stop the spread of the virus in the country.
Ardern also said that New Zealand should keep the current restrictions so the government will be able to lower the alert level to 2.
"Stay the course," she said, "We need to not get ahead of ourselves, stick to our bubble and finish the job we started," she added.
The government is expected to decide whether it will lower the restriction level on Monday, May 11. If it rules favorably, New Zealand citizens would learn about the new rules on Thursday.
At the moment there are about 1,487 confirmed infections in New Zealand and a death toll of 20, turning the country in one of the less affected by the advance of the pandemic in the world.
Ardern also discussed the idea of establishing a trans-Tasman bubble with Australia. She stated that she is joining a meeting with Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday to discuss ideas about managing the virus and to talk about the establishment of a travel bubble between both countries. If approved, the citizens of both places would be able to travel without having to comply with a 14-day quarantine period.
Nevertheless, Ardern made clear that this is not happening in the short term.
"Don’t expect this to happen in a couple of weeks’ time,” she stated, “Both our countries’ strong record on fighting the virus has placed us in the enviable position of being able to plan the next stage in our economic rebuild and to include trans-Tasman travel and engagement in our strategy,” she added.
Ardern reportedly said that establishing such a travel bubble would be advantageous in terms of helping the economy of both countries, as it would enable the traveling of a flow of people for business and trade purposes.
On Thursday, Morrison favored the idea, saying that he has been discussing the idea with Ardern for some time.
“If there’s any country in the world with whom we can reconnect with first, undoubtedly that’s New Zealand,” stated Morrison.
Among other topics, the leaders are also discussing the idea of New Zealand using the CovidSafe tracing app, which has been successfully employed by Australia. Ardern said that the idea is being considered by New Zealand's government but that they prefer not to rely on them.
By 7:00 GMT the New Zealand Dollar went down by 0.49 percent against the Greenback, falling to the 0.6037 level.