Moving Back Home to New Zealand, A Community of Responsibility

How a small island nation curbed a pandemic like no other

Today, as most of the world awaits vaccine distribution, New Zealand has enjoyed nearly 11 months of normalcy. For most people in New Zealand, quarantine was only a two-month ordeal. As much of my family lives there, I was eager to move back to where I grew up to experience not only time away from the pandemic, but as well an entire different community. 

New Zealand’s  handling of the pandemic is much better than the United States, which was proven in the way I had to quarantine upon entry to the country, and as well the effective responses the community had to the few coronavirus outbreaks that occurred during the months I was living there. 

The impact of the pandemic on New Zealand has been minimal with few community outbreaks, a government-managed quarantine and lack of foregin workers and tourism from closed borders. The country’s small community, cultural values rooted in respect, and the government’s trust in science of preventing the coronavirus has allowed them to prevent the spread of the virus. 

As an island nation with a remarkably small population (approximately 5 million people), New Zealand has been able to approach the pandemic in a unique way, allowing the country to effectively respond to and prevent the spread of the coronavirus. From the Jan. 3, 2020 to April 15, 2021, the country has seen 2,235 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and26 deaths as per the World Health Organization (WHO). As of March 31, 2021, a total of 48,367 vaccine doses have been administered.

However, despite the welcoming call of a virus-free island paradise, do not expect to travel there soon, as New Zealand has completely closed its borders to any non-citizens. Even to check my bag at the airport, I had to prove my New Zealand citizenship. Secondly, any citizens who choose to travel back to the country must undergo a government-mandated quarantine for 14 days. For citizens staying in the country for longer than 90 days, the quarantine is paid for, for anyone else, the total of a stay in the quarantine process in New Zealand is over three thousand dollars. 

Upon arrival, my family and I were assigned a hotel in Hamiliton, NZ for our 14-day isolation period. After our three-hour bus ride from the airport in Auckland to the hotel, we were checked in. The quarantine hotels are the places in New Zealand that experience the largest number of Covid outbreaks, so they are strictly monitored and well run. 

The Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) process is run by the New Zealand government and uses the excess supply of hotels in New Zealand to conduct the quarantine process. With closed borders, these hotels would have suffered a loss, but now receive money and business from the government instead. The financial costs of MIQ for the citizens of New Zealand is balanced by the fact that New Zealand is COVID-19 free.

In 14 days of isolation in the MIQ, I was tested once on entry to the hotel quarantine, once on day three and once on day seven. This has proven to be an effective method of keeping the New Zealand community COVID-19 outbreaks to a almost nonexistent frequency. 

During my three-month stay, New Zealand had an over-60 day period without a single community covid outbreak. Though few and far between, is very important to respond to the outbreaks that do occur. 

To everyone in the New Zealand community, stopping the spread of the coronavirus is vital to protecting the lives of many fellow New Zealanders. In total, New Zealand has fewer than a thousand intensive care unit (ICU) beds for the whole population. If coronavirus were to massively spread, their hospitals would be lacking in the proper resources to respond to the consequences, so everyone in the community takes preventative measures seriously. 

In addition to the COVID-19 testing, nurses conducted a daily symptom and temperature check. Citizens staying in MIQ are only allowed outside of the hotel rooms during set times, during which it is permitted to exercise around a gated-off concrete square. Even the meals in quarantine are always delivered to the hotel rooms, with the hotel providing a list of choices of meals for the week. 

After I was released from quarantine in December, I returned to my home, a small rural town on the coast of the Coromandel Peninsula called Hahei. Although New Zealand has had very few community covid outbreaks the lack of foreigners had a serious impact on the tourism industry, which pre-Covid had been expanding rapidly. It is not actually a loss, as the economic effect of the New Zealand citizens not traveling abroad for vacation has caused different industries to do better than others. For example, the campsite in Hahei had the busiest season in quite a few years, while the kayak guides were much less busy, as much of its business appeals to foreign tourists. 

Since I was released from quarantine in December until I got back to the United States in March, 2021, I wore a mask two times. 

There are many aspects that New Zealand has that gives it advantages to managing the pandemic. An island with a small population is able to carry out a strict, successful quarantining system. 

However another factor which allows New Zealand to respond to the few outbreaks successfully is the way that I have seen all citizens recognizing mask-wearing and social distancing as a serious and important measure. The community is everything in New Zealand. 

The United States, which has had outbreaks of anti-mask protests and politicians directly opposing the science about the coronavirus, could certainly do better to follow in the footsteps of the New Zealand government.