Learning from others

New Zealand reported just one new infection on Monday, but its leaders remain cautious with their words.

"That does give us confidence that we've achieved our goal of elimination, which never meant zero but it does mean we know where our cases are coming from," its Director General of Health said.

Since the virus was first detected, New Zealand has had 1,472 confirmed and probable coronavirus cases, with 82 percent having recovered. There have been 19 deaths.

On Tuesday, the country eased into a lower-level lockdown with 400,000 more New Zealanders heading back to work and 75 percent of the economy operating, said its prime minister Jacinda Ardern.

“We are not out of the woods,” she said.

These words are from a leader whose decisive action and extraordinary compassion are widely recognized. While it is true that New Zealand’s remote location has helped it contain the spread of the virus, its swift, science-based steps have been equally crucial to its relative success.

Numerous countries are now grappling with the need to open up their economies, albeit in a limited or gradual fashion, on one hand, and preventing a further spread or succeeding waves of contagion on the other. Weeks of lockdown have crippled businesses and highlighted the plight of the poor, but some countries that have initially seen success in containing the virus found themselves facing bigger problems once they eased restrictions.

The Philippines faces a similar dilemma, especially since President Rodrigo Duterte has extended the enhanced community quarantine in critical areas to May 15, even as a less restrictive general quarantine would be in place in other places beginning Friday. While the rise number of recovered patients has long outpaced the number of deaths, the number of new confirmed cases continues to fluctuate.

And even when we do begin to see a downward trend, we cannot be completely confident in the numbers, because mass or random testing—the only way we can get a sense of the prevalence of infection across the country—remains a work in progress.

The reckoning period will keep moving for the weeks to come. In the meantime, it is unconscionable to return to the way things were before the pandemic hit. “New normal” is a term overused these days, but it is true. Even if some restrictions were eventually relaxed, we would always have to wear masks, wash hands frequently, keep physical distance, and constantly evaluate our activities as essential—or not.

Meanwhile, we should always keep ourselves informed of what other countries are doing, either well or poorly. Only then can we decide which practices to adopt, emulate, or junk altogether. In the same vein, local governments can learn much from each other if they compare notes and collaborate. It is never a competition, after all. We have a common enemy, and it is not each other.