New Zealand is set to reopen its economy next week, following a complete lockdown in late March due to the novel coronavirus.
As of April 27, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the country will move to ease its strict work restrictions that saw severely limited travel and all mass gatherings cancelled. By next week, businesses, kindergarten and elementary schools that teach ages 1 to 10 will reopen.
In March, the New Zealand prime minister made the decision to “go hard and go early,” locking down the country after around 100 residents tested positive for COVID-19.
“We have the opportunity to do something no other country has achieved: elimination of the virus,” she told reporters last week. “But it will continue to need a team of five million behind it.”
Story continues below advertisement
Experts believe the Canadian government could learn a thing or two from Ardern’s leadership.
Craig Janes, director of the School of Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo, said New Zealand’s quick implementation of travel restrictions and bringing the country to an essential halt “stopped the transmission in its tracks.”
“They acted very quickly before they had too many infections in that country,” Janes said.
1:53 NZ’s Ardern, ministers take 20% pay cut for six months due to coronavirus impact
NZ’s Ardern, ministers take 20% pay cut for six months due to coronavirus impact
“We were just a little bit late in [locking down the country]. We probably only had a narrow window, and we kind of met it to some extent, but if we’ve acted maybe two weeks earlier that may have made a big difference.”
Ardern’s strategy appears to have worked.
New Zealand has remained one of a few countries to avoid a widespread outbreak. As of Wednesday, data from Johns Hopkins University showed 1,451 confirmed cases. Only 14 people have died, and cases have dropped from an uptick of 90 per day in April to just five as of Tuesday.
Petousis-Harris said the country’s methods, such as its four-level alert system, which clearly outlined the varying degrees of government response to the virus, managed to avoid the confusion and half-measures that have hampered the response in many other places, like Canada or the United States.
Story continues below advertisement
“New Zealand got everything right,” she said. “Decisive action, with strong leadership and very clear communications to everybody.”
Timothy Sly, an epidemiologist and professor emeritus at Ryerson University’s School of Public Health, said what New Zealand has managed to achieve is “something quite remarkable.”
2:50 Coronavirus outbreak: Dr. Tam says provinces must ‘tread very carefully’ when it comes to reopening the economy
Coronavirus outbreak: Dr. Tam says provinces must ‘tread very carefully’ when it comes to reopening the economy
Part of their success, he said, can be attributed to their testing diagnostics. He added that New Zealand was able to test citizens faster due to their smaller population.
New Zealand and Taiwan, another country that has successfully mitigated COVID-19, are also champions of temperature screening.
Temperature screening involves a touchless scanner that measures if a person has an elevated body temperature. It can be done anywhere, and results are instant.
Sly said the practice is considered somewhat controversial and unreliable — as it is possible to develop elevated body temperatures without being sick and in the case of COVID-19, many carriers remain asymptomatic. But Sly noted even if it missed half of Canada’s infected, the tests will “at least get half of those people coming into the country.”
With that in mind though, Sly said New Zealand already had a geographical edge over Canada when it came to containing the virus.
Story continues below advertisement
New Zealand is a sparsely populated island country of five million people surrounded by water and Antarctica to the south, which Sly said helped their government keep a closer eye on every airport and seaport and prevent community spread.
“The government really got that ability to control or to monitor the borders,” he said. “Almost all of their cases, at least half of their cases coming in, have been traced directly to a source outside of the country.”
Canada, on the other hand, shares its borders with the United States.
3:21 Trudeau urges patience; “many weeks” until economy reopens
Trudeau urges patience; “many weeks” until economy reopens
“Canada has this huge border with a country to the south that, frankly, isn’t doing very well,” Janes said.
When Canada finally does reopen its economy, Janes said the federal government may run into difficulties controlling reintroduction to the virus, given how interconnected the country is with the U.S. and the number of travellers that regularly cross between borders.
Even then, Sly said he expected social distancing will remain a part of everyday life for some time.
“The bottom line is that the more you do take the lid off and people come out, expect the numbers to increase,” said Sly.
Story continues below advertisement
If the government does it carefully, Sly said the numbers will increase slowly without overwhelming Canada’s public health-care system.
If not, “stand back, because about 10 days later you’ll see the case numbers beginning to increase and they’re going to skyrocket way up, just like it did in New York.”
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
NAPA, Calif. (AP) — David Lipsky shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday at Silverado Country Club to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Procore Championship.
Winless in 104 events since joining the PGA Tour in 2022, Lipsky went out with the early groups and had eight birdies with one bogey to kick off the FedEx Cup Fall series at the picturesque course in the heart of Napa Valley wine country.
After missing the cut in his three previous tournaments, Lipsky flew from Las Vegas to Arizona to reunite with his college coach at Northwestern to get his focus back. He also spent time playing with some of the Northwestern players, which helped him relax.
“Just being around those guys and seeing how carefree they are, not knowing what’s coming for them yet, it’s sort of nice to see that,” Lipsky said. “I was almost energized by their youthfulness.”
Patton Kizzire and Mark Hubbard were a stroke back. Kizzire started on the back nine and made a late run with three consecutive birdies to move into a tie for first. A bogey on No. 8 dropped him back.
“There was a lot of good stuff out there today,” Kizzire said. “I stayed patient and just went through my routines and played well, one shot at a time. I’ve really bee working hard on my mental game and I think that allowed me to rinse and repeat and reset and keep playing.”
Mark Hubbard was at 67. He had nine birdies but fell off the pace with a bogey and triple bogey on back-to-back holes.
Kevin Dougherty also was in the group at 67. He had two eagles and ended his afternoon by holing out from 41 yards on the 383-yard, par-4 18th.
Defending champion Sahith Theegala had to scramble for much of his round of 69.
Wyndham Clark, who won the U.S. Open in 2023 and the AT&T at Pebble Beach in February, had a 70.
Max Homa shot 71. The two-time tournament champion and a captain’s pick for the President’s Cup in two weeks had two birdies and overcame a bogey on the par-4 first.
Stewart Cink, the 2020 winner, also opened with a 71. He won The Ally Challenge last month for his first PGA Tour Champions title.
Three players from the Presidents Cup International team had mix results. Min Woo Lee shot 68, Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., 69 and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., 73. International team captain Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., also had a 69.
Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., had a 68, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., and Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., shot 70 and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., had a 71.
Lipsky was a little shaky off the tee for much of the afternoon but made up for it with steady iron play that left him in great shape on the greens. He had one-putts on 11 holes and was in position for a bigger day but left five putts short.
Lipsky’s only real problem came on the par-4 ninth when his approach sailed into a bunker just shy of the green. He bounced back nicely with five birdies on his back nine. After missing a 19-foot putt for birdie on No. 17, Lipsky ended his day with a 12-foot par putt.
That was a big change from last year when Lipsky tied for 30th at Silverado when he drove the ball well but had uneven success on the greens.
“Sometimes you have to realize golf can be fun, and I think I sort of forgot that along the way as I’m grinding it out,” Lipsky said. “You’ve got to put things in perspective, take a step back. Sort of did that and it seems like it’s working out.”
Laird stayed close after beginning his day with a bogey on the par-4 10th. The Scot got out of the sand nicely but pushed his par putt past the hole.
Homa continued to have issues off the tee and missed birdie putts on his final four holes.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic is moving on to the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open.
The Mississauga, Ont., native defeated the tournament top seed, Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) in the round of 16 on Thursday.
Stakusic faced a 0-4 deficit in the third and final set before marching back into the match.
The 19-year-old won five of the next six games to even it up before exchanging games to force a tiebreaker, where Stakusic took complete control to win the match.
Stakusic had five aces with 17 double faults in the three-hour, four-minute match.
However, she converted eight of her 18 break-point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
