New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has responded to the bizarre claim made by US President Donald Trump that the country is experiencing a “big surge” in COVID-19 infections.
“It’s patently wrong,” she responded when questioned by local media.
No comparison between the two, says Ardern
“I don’t think there’s any comparison between New Zealand’s current cluster and the tens of thousands of cases that are being seen daily in the United States,” Ardern said.
“Obviously, every country is experiencing its own fight with COVID-19; it is a tricky virus, but not one where I would compare New Zealand’s current status to the United States.
“We are still one of the best-performing countries in the world when it comes to Covid and our workers are focused on keeping it that way,” the Kiwi PM added.
Trump made his comments at a political rally
Trump’s statement, made during a speech at a campaign rally in the state of Minnesota, seemed to somehow equate NZ’s nine new cases on Monday to the 42 000 recorded in the US on the same day.
He also failed to contextualise the 170 000 deaths in the United States versus the 22 in New Zealand.
“You see what’s going on in New Zealand?” Trump said as he addressed a group of supporters.
US President claimed a ‘big surge’ in New Zealand
“They beat it they beat; it was like front page [news]. They beat it because they wanted to show me something,” the US President stated.
“The problem is [there is a] big surge in New Zealand; you know it’s terrible – we don’t want that.
“This is an invisible enemy that should have never been [allowed] to come to this country, to Europe to the rest of the world by China; just remember it,” he said.
Comments may have been made to divert attention
Trump’s comments may have been an attempt to divert attention from the widely criticised US response to the pandemic and to suggest that other countries are in a similar situation to the seemingly out-of-control scenario playing out in many parts of the United States.
Los Angeles county, for example, has 220 000 infections and Miami-Dade has 145 000.
“President Trump has been criticised for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic – from labelling it a ‘hoax’ in the early part of the year, to wrongly suggesting that injecting disinfectant could be a potential way to fight COVID-19. Until the past few weeks Trump has refused to wear a mask,” commented the Guardian newspaper.
