‘Reaching zero cases doesn’t depend on country’s size but on strong leadership’ says New Zealand epidemiologist

As the UK institutes tighter travel restrictions, it’s worth remembering that the country that brought in the strictest controls before any other was New Zealand.

While some here were floating the idea of mass infection leading to herd immunity, New Zealand went hard and fast into lockdown at a time when there were only a few thousand known cases worldwide.

They have had just twenty five deaths in total.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy was joined now by the epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker who helped devise New Zealand’s aggressive response.

He was speaking today at a conference organised by the UK’s trade union-backed Zero Covid campaign.