New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Aldern announced on Monday that New Zealand has no active cases of COVID-19, and will now lift restrictions.   It has had no new cases for more than two weeks.  She said New Zealand citizens united in unprecedented ways to crush the virus.

She said the country went into lockdown 26 days after the first case.  She said nobody has been in the hospital for 12 days, and it has been 40 days since the last case of community transmission.  Ardern said in the last 17 days they’ve tested 40,000 people for COVID-19 with no positives.  The country has now moved to what they are calling Level 1.

That means, according to the New Zealand Government web site, that “everyone can return without restriction to work, school, sports and domestic travel, and you can get together with as many people as you want.”

The country is still being cautious:  controls at the borders remain for those entering New Zealand, including health screening and testing for all arrivals, and mandatory 14 day managed quarantine or isolation.

New Zealand, with a population of around 4.8 million, has had 1,504 confirmed cases and 22 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard.