Tag Archives: COVID-19

New Zealand Scraps Last of Covid Restrictions

New Zealand Scraps Last of Covid Restrictions

New Zealand has ended the last of its Covid restrictions, bringing the final curtain down on one of the world’s strictest pandemic policies as the Government said the country suffered a far lower mortality…

Helen Clark Co-Chairs New Global Health Commission

Helen Clark Co-Chairs New Global Health Commission

A new global health commission established by London think tank Chatham House, co-chaired by former prime minister Helen Clark and former president of Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete, seeks to strengthen worldwide medical systems to ensure…

Pandemic Effects Roil Aotearoa – End in Sight

Pandemic Effects Roil Aotearoa – End in Sight

A full two years into the pandemic and New Zealand has been roiled by the mass arrival of the Omicron variant, economic stress in the tourism and hospitality and agricultural sectors, protests against mandate…

New Zealanders in Vietnam Thrive Despite Covid

New Zealanders in Vietnam Thrive Despite Covid

As Covid continues to cut a disruptive swath through Asia, expatriate communities have been hit hard. In the unique situation of living far from home in Vietnam, a trio of New Zealanders shared their…

2-Metre Peter Poster Makes London Museum

2-Metre Peter Poster Makes London Museum

Two years ago Christchurch medical radiation technologist Peter Dooley loaned his 2-metre body to a Covid-19 social-distancing campaign, Cecile Meier reports for Stuff. Now the posters – featuring him lying down or spreading his…

Civil Liberties in the Covid Age Discussed

Civil Liberties in the Covid Age Discussed

“Vaccines, their mandates and certificates have ignited heated debate about civil liberties in New Zealand. Add MIQ, climate change, the government’s Three Waters policy and proposed hate speech legislation, and it’s easy to see…

New Zealanders Overseas Talk Being Behind Borders

New Zealanders Overseas Talk Being Behind Borders

When Jacinda Ardern closed New Zealand’s borders, chasing a zero-Covid policy, many New Zealanders were effectively locked out of their own country, Molly Codyre writes, having interviewed “those left behind” for an article published in the…

New Zealand Ships Covid Vaccines to Tokelau

New Zealand Ships Covid Vaccines to Tokelau

Tokelau, one of the most inaccessible atolls in the world, has just received 12 precious boxes of vaccine delivered by the New Zealand Defence Force, Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson writes for The Guardian. Inside the boxes…

Artist David Boyce Exhibits in Hong Kong

Artist David Boyce Exhibits in Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s Karin Weber Gallery has announced a joint exhibition by New Zealander David Boyce and China’s Hiu Tung Lau, two artists in dialogue who between them cover a multitude of artistic expressions and…

Economist Adulation Has Auckland Residents Puzzled

Economist Adulation Has Auckland Residents Puzzled

It boasts beautiful beaches, a temperate climate and a multicultural population that has fostered an eclectic mix of food, music and arts. But is Auckland, a remote outpost in the South Pacific, really the world’s…

Jenny McGee Resigns from NHS Citing Disrespect

Jenny McGee Resigns from NHS Citing Disrespect

Invercargill-born nurse Jenny McGee, who cared for Boris Johnson when he was gravely ill with Covid-19, says she has handed in her resignation, such is her disillusionment with the “lack of respect” shown by…

Al Jazeera’s Elizabeth Puranam Reports from India

Al Jazeera’s Elizabeth Puranam Reports from India

In the beginning it was a shock, people dying around her while desperate families begged hospital officials for help. Auckland-raised Al Jazeera anchor and journalist Elizabeth Puranam, 37, wouldn’t say she’s used to it,…

New Zealand’s Emphatic Covid-19 Approach

New Zealand’s Emphatic Covid-19 Approach

“In New Zealand, investigators traced an outbreak to a 50-second window of exposure. The case might be a lesson for countries contemplating a future with no Covid-19,” WIRED’s science editor Matt Reynolds reports. “Authorities investigating…

A Portal Into a Universe Without Covid

A Portal Into a Universe Without Covid

“Concerts, beaches, crowds: Videos of New Zealand enjoying its summer feel like peering into an alternate reality,” Dublin-based New Zealander Brian Ng writes in a story published by The New York Times. “While much of…

Manaakitanga Behind Our Strong Covid Response

Manaakitanga Behind Our Strong Covid Response

There is a deeper reason why New Zealand has “fared so much better”, than say, the United States in combatting Covid-19, and it’s manaakitanga, according to New Zealanders Matthew Milner and Richard Ngata, who…

Six60 Play World’s Only Stadium Tour

Six60 Play World’s Only Stadium Tour

They’re currently the planet’s biggest touring band, putting on huge shows in their COVID-free homeland, NME reports. In his own words, Six60’s frontman, Matiu Walters, told the magazine how that feels. “When New Zealand went into…

What If the UK Had Shut as Quickly as NZ?

What If the UK Had Shut as Quickly as NZ?

“The UK’s physical isolation sets it apart from its continental neighbours, but could its island status have protected it from the full horror of Covid-19, had it closed borders in early 2020, as New…

Local Creatives On Navigating a Post-Covid World

Local Creatives On Navigating a Post-Covid World

In a recent online i-D magazine article, young New Zealand creatives – including photographer Apela Bell (pictured), designer Charlotte Jennings, and performers Benee and Teeks – explain to readers “what it looks like on…

Our Covid Response the Best of a Bad Year

Our Covid Response the Best of a Bad Year

Covid may have made 2020 a year to forget, but amid the gloom there were plenty of positive moments, with countries like New Zealand and led by women having “systematically and significantly better” Covid-19…

How Our Film Industry Boomed During the Pandemic

How Our Film Industry Boomed During the Pandemic

Thanks to its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, New Zealand is enjoying an unprecedented boom in film production, with directors seeking safe conditions, and that most elusive thing this year – a normal life,…

Siouxsie Wiles Makes BBC List of Inspiring Women

Siouxsie Wiles Makes BBC List of Inspiring Women

Scientist and public health communicator Siouxsie Wiles has been named on this year’s BBC list of 100 Women, a roll call of “inspiring and inspirational women from around the world”. This year, the BBC reports,…

New Zealand emerges as global leader and “beacon of light” in era of Covid-19

New Zealand emerges as global leader and “beacon of light” in era of Covid-19

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, New Zealand has emerged as a global leader. However there’s more to this leadership than New Zealand’s efforts in developing a world-renowned best-practice pandemic response, says London-based…

Auckland on World’s Best Covid-era Cities List

Auckland on World’s Best Covid-era Cities List

Auckland is among the top 100 cities in the world to live in or visit during the Covid-19 era, according to a new Resonance Consultancy global ranking. The annual best cities report ranked cities with…

New Zealand Inc Reaps Benefit of Lockdown Response

New Zealand Inc Reaps Benefit of Lockdown Response

When Covid-19 struck New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern’s government quickly closed the nation’s borders and imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in a bid to eliminate the spread of the virus. Jamie Smyth, a…

Soul Machines’ AI Florence Helps Smokers Quit

Soul Machines’ AI Florence Helps Smokers Quit

With smokers at great risk of Covid-19 complications, Auckland-based Soul Machines, leaders in artificial general intelligence (AGI), and the World Health Organization (WHO) have developed Florence, an embodied AI who offers online counselling for…

Xero’s Steve Vamos Leads Staff Through Pandemic

Xero’s Steve Vamos Leads Staff Through Pandemic

Head of Wellington-based accountancy software group Xero, Steve Vamos, 62, strives to create an environment where staff do ‘great work’. The tech veteran recently spoke to Financial Times correspondent Jonathan Moules over a video call about…

Allbirds Bets on Physical Stores Despite Pandemic

Allbirds Bets on Physical Stores Despite Pandemic

Allbirds, the wool shoe brand that closed a $100m fundraising round this week, is backing bricks-and-mortar stores in spite of the pandemic, according to Financial Times journalist Jonathan Moules. Moules writes that the new…

PM Jacinda Ardern Runner Up in Prospect List

PM Jacinda Ardern Runner Up in Prospect List

The votes have been counted and the results are in. UK magazine Prospect’s top 10 is full of practical-minded thinkers for the Covid-19 age – and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has taken…

Queenstown Looks to Alternative Revenue

Queenstown Looks to Alternative Revenue

As the Covid-19 pandemic closes borders and grounds aircraft around the world, iconic destinations from Kyoto to Amsterdam are addressing the new reality of fewer visitors and looking for ways to reset their local…

Tony Blakely Advocate for COVID Elimination

Tony Blakely Advocate for COVID Elimination

The professorial fellow at Melbourne University’s School of Population and Global Health, New Zealander Tony Blakely has become one of the go-to epidemiologists for the Australian media trying to explain the complex interactions between…

Staggering Potential of NZ’s Returning Diaspora

Staggering Potential of NZ’s Returning Diaspora

International strategist and insights specialist Aucklander Julia Arnott-Neenee, 27, is one of a number of high achievers “coming home at once”. The Spinoff’s managing editor Duncan Greive interviews the well-travelled Arnott-Neenee, amongst other New…

Media Mogul Sinead Boucher Challenges Online Giants

Media Mogul Sinead Boucher Challenges Online Giants

Tucked away in Sinead Boucher’s sock drawer is the one-dollar coin that transformed the former journalist into New Zealand’s biggest media mogul, giving her a platform to challenge Facebook and other social media giants,…

London Health Worker Natalie Scott a Free Sister

London Health Worker Natalie Scott a Free Sister

Clinical lead physiotherapist for critical care at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, New Zealander Natalie Scott, has received the Freedom of the City of London – a recognition awarded to people who have achieved success, recognition or celebrity…

Helen Clark to co-Lead WHO COVID-19 Panel on Global Response, Future Prevention

Helen Clark to co-Lead WHO COVID-19 Panel on Global Response, Future Prevention

“Avowed multilateralists” New Zealander Helen Clark and Liberian politician Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will lead a World Health Organization (WHO) panel scrutinising the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic just as international institutions are under…

Narrative Founder James Broadbent on NZ’s Covid-19 Response in Fast Company

Narrative Founder James Broadbent on NZ’s Covid-19 Response in Fast Company

In a Fast Company story, internationally renowned photographer and the CEO of Auckland-based Narrative, James Broadbent describes how New Zealand efficiently executed its pandemic response. He argues this same efficiency makes the country an…

Housesitters Find a Community in COVID-19 NZ

Housesitters Find a Community in COVID-19 NZ

After struggling to find an affordable apartment in Nelson, a Canadian-New Zealand couple signed up to be housesitters, and ended up booking back-to-back sitting gigs for an entire year. But when COVID-19 began, Business…

How a Pandemic Reframed Ben Shewry’s Attica

How a Pandemic Reframed Ben Shewry’s Attica

From creating A$310 degustation menus for international foodies to driving around Melbourne delivering takeaway lasagnes during a pandemic. Few in the restaurant game have upended their business as completely – and successfully – as…

Whispir’s Jeromy Wells Likes a Challenge

Whispir’s Jeromy Wells Likes a Challenge

New Zealander Jeromy Wells, the chief executive and founder of listed cloud communication platform and workflow software company Whispir, denies COVID-19 is the best thing that has ever happened to him, Patrick Durkin reports…

Capturing Copeisolation on Rakiura/Stewart Island

Capturing Copeisolation on Rakiura/Stewart Island

Originally from Estonia, Laire Purik is documenting the life of the residents of Rakiura “through windows, through the gates” as they cope with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The BBC reports on her…

Geoff Walker a Helping Hand in Uganda

Geoff Walker a Helping Hand in Uganda

Photographer Geoff Walker left New Zealand to escape the haunting memory of witnessing the 2012 Carterton balloon tragedy, and found a new purpose for life in humanitarian work in Uganda, Mariné Lourens reports for…

James Shaw on Our Economic Climate Post-COVID-19

James Shaw on Our Economic Climate Post-COVID-19

Cheap, renewable electricity is one way of reviving economies and preserving New Zealand’s natural environment, Climate Change Minister and co-leader of the Green Party James Shaw argues in an opinion piece for The Guardian. Shaw…

New Zealand Will Be Waiting for You

New Zealand Will Be Waiting for You

“New Zealand remains on the top of many tourists’ travel bucket lists,” Forbes contributor Fiona Tapp writes. “But now that travel is severely restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, dreams of exploring New Zealand…

Boris Johnson Just Another Patient Says Jenny McGee

Boris Johnson Just Another Patient Says Jenny McGee

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was “just another patient we were trying to do our best for”, one of the nurses who treated him has said. In her first public comment since Johnson…

What Next for New Zealand’s Economy?

What Next for New Zealand’s Economy?

“In New Zealand, a country of five million people, new COVID-19 cases have been in the single digits for most of the past week. Australia reported just seven new infections on 23 April. That…

New York-Based Jess Johnson Finds Solace in Art

New York-Based Jess Johnson Finds Solace in Art

Some artists embrace chance and whimsy, but New Zealander Jess Johnson’s painstaking focus puts her into a space entirely under her command, John Bailey writes for WA Today. Right now, the contrast to the…

UAE Roaster Kim Thompson Looks on the Bright Side

UAE Roaster Kim Thompson Looks on the Bright Side

New Zealand-born Dubai-based Kim Thompson, the founder of Raw Coffee Company, tells local English-language newspaper, The National that looking after her employees is her priority during the COVID-19 crisis. The boutique roastery supplies cafés, restaurants,…

Jacinda Ardern “May Be the Most Effective Leader on the Planet”

Jacinda Ardern “May Be the Most Effective Leader on the Planet”

Influential U.S. news journal The Atlantic says “Jacinda Ardern’s leadership style, focused on empathy, isn’t just resonating with her people; it’s putting the country on track for success against the coronavirus.” Uri Friedman, staff…

Diana Baker’s Online Baby Photography Class a Hit

Diana Baker’s Online Baby Photography Class a Hit

For new mothers across the world the coronavirus crisis has thrown a major spanner in the works of what should be a time of celebration and bonding with their newborn child, Conor Matchett writes…

New Zealand One of World’s Most Resilient Economies

New Zealand One of World’s Most Resilient Economies

Experts have already begun assessing how a recovery might look once the COVID-19 virus is contained, and which countries stand to bounce back best. According to the 2019 Global Resilience Index, New Zealand sits…

Looking Back at the Wimbledon of Anthony Wilding

Looking Back at the Wimbledon of Anthony Wilding

Now that the Wimbledon Championships have officially been cancelled because of the outbreak of the coronavirus and COVID-19 disease, Forbes looks at other years the world’s most famous tennis event was disrupted, including the…

Arts Can Foster Resilience Says Blair French

Arts Can Foster Resilience Says Blair French

The crisis and the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic will test New Zealander Blair French’s management strengths as much as his curatorial abilities, Sydney Morning Herald journalist Linda Morris writes. But the chief executive of…

How New Zealand Is Coping under Lockdown

How New Zealand Is Coping under Lockdown

As the COVID-19 crisis continues, Forbes hears from their science contributors across the globe, including New Zealand-based Irish writer, Laurie Winkless who, over Twitter, asked a number of New Zealanders to share their stories…

Allbirds for Health Workers During COVID-19 Crisis

Allbirds for Health Workers During COVID-19 Crisis

Around the world, there is a shortage of personal protective gear that will keep health workers safe as they care for patients in COVID-19 wards, Elizabeth Segran reports for Fast Company magazine. While companies…

Ruby Princess and the Great Discontinuity

Ruby Princess and the Great Discontinuity

Denis O’Reilly is a New Zealand community leader and activist. This is his 91st essay for nzedge.com. My time as a bouncer on the door at Ali Baba’s in Cuba St Wellington, circa 1975,…

Escaping COVID-19 Chaos in New York

Escaping COVID-19 Chaos in New York

It started with an ominous email: “We urge New Zealanders currently travelling overseas to consider returning home while commercial options remain available,” the foreign affairs ministry wrote.  For citizens of the nation at the…