New Zealand has lifted almost all of its coronavirus restrictions after reporting no active cases in the country.
At midnight local time (12:00 GMT), all of New Zealand moved to level one, the lowest of a four-tier alert system.
Under new rules, social distancing is not required and there are no limits on public gatherings, but borders remain closed to foreigners.
New Zealand has reported no new Covid-19 cases for more than two weeks.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters she did "a little dance" when she was told the country no longer had any active virus cases.
"While we're in a safer, stronger position, there's still no easy path back to pre-Covid life, but the determination and focus we have had on our health response will now be vested in our economic rebuild," Ms Ardern said.
"While the job is not done, there is no denying this is a milestone. So can I finish with a very simple, 'Thank you, New Zealand'."
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last commentNZ is unique in many ways. It's very low population and location made it a lot easier for them.
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NZ acted quickly and its leader took Covid-19 seriously. But as Londonguy says, NZ has a small population and does not have the kind of international travel that the US has.
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You can single out NZ and S. Korea as the two countries that have dealt with the coronavirus rationally: social distancing at first, then testing, tracing, and isolating those who are sick.
We're not going to get the same result in our country run by an imbecile. There is no concerted federal effort to fight the virus at this point, and you can expect more waves of death in the future, probably starting in the fall. Even wearing a mask in our country has taken on a nutty political meaning.
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The states that fucked this up were all run by Democrats. Hopefully those areas will experience a huge increase in deaths, but we seldom have such luck.
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