New Zealand followed suit with its counterparts and suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong citing the new developments caused by the Security Law.

“China’s passage of its new national security legislation has eroded rule-of-law principles, undermined the ‘one country, two systems’ framework that underpins Hong Kong’s unique status, and gone against commitments China made to the international community,” Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said in a statement on Tuesday in Wellington. “New Zealand can no longer trust that Hong Kong’s criminal justice system is sufficiently independent of China.”

New Zealand might have strained relations with China henceforth, which is currently its largest trading partner. Irrespective of that, it has chosen to follow the footsteps of its other Five Eyes allies, namely Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, along with the United States. The US is in a diplomatic row with China, that is getting worse with every passing day.

China’s New Security Law for Hong Kong, that cracks down on Hong Kong citizens has drawn contempt from all over the world. In this regard, New Zealand has taken strict measures to update travel advice towards its citizens who are to travel there. It is also touted to treat its exports to Hong Kong the way it treats its exports to China.

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On Thursday, New Zealand’s Kermadec Islands were hit by an earthquake of magnitude 7.4 on the Richter scale. A warning of hazardous tsunami waves within 300km (186 miles) of the epicentre was issued within minutes. However, the alert was later downgraded with no tsunami threat for New Zealand or Australia. The country’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) tweeted saying that the possibility of this triggering a tsunami was unlikely.

This earthquake, which has been dubbed the June 18 quake, has been measured to have an impact of up to a depth of 10 kilometres. This was preceded by a similar quake of 5.1 magnitude off the Bay of Plenty about 5.30 am on Tuesday.

Earthquakes with magnitudes between 6.5 and 7.5, like the one that occurred south of New Zealand, generally do not produce destructive tsunamis, the United States Geological Survey states, but “small sea-level changes might be observed in the vicinity of the epicentre.” Due to this, people have been instructed to stay out of the water, fearing strong currents.

A lot of people living along the coast have come out in condemnation of the delay in response with respect to the Tsunami warning, saying that by the time the NEMA had issued the warning to not venture into the sea, it would have been too late, had there been a tsunami.

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New Zealand, the country that took the world by storm because of their steadfast action against coronavirus pandemic has had two reported cases recently. They were relate to two women from the same family, both of whom had travelled from the UK and were given special permission to visit a dying parent.

The women – one in her 30s and one in her 40s – arrived in New Zealand from the UK on the 7 June, via Doha and Brisbane, and entered quarantine. One of them had displayed symptoms, but had not made notice of it, citing previous symptoms. They were diagnosed positive on Tuesday, after the test was carried out on Monday.

This effectively ends the country’s 24 day streak of no cases. New Zealand’s health minister David Clark apologised for not having had proper checks and suspended the exemptions that were given to quarantine.

A couple weeks ago, the country was declared coronavirus free and had removed all restrictions that were put in place. There were strict border restrictions that remained, exempting medical workers as well as those having emergencies. Due to the detection of new cases, this exemption has been removed by the government.

The newly recorded cases brings New Zealand’s total number of cases since the outbreak began to 1,506. The death toll remains unchanged at 22.

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For the first time since February 28, New Zealand’s health ministry has reported zero active coronavirus cases. The last patient who was being monitored was discharged, after being declared symptom-free.

Following this, Jacinda Ardern, the country’s prime minister, in a statement on Monday, said that all restrictions were to be lifted from Tuesday. In a news conference, she was reported saying that they were confident of having eliminated the virus, for now. “But elimination is not a point in time, it is a sustained effort. While the job is not done, there is no denying this is a milestone… Thank you, New Zealand,” she added.

Although most restrictions are to be lifted, borders will still remain closed, as the country moves from level 1 alert to level 2. With this, New Zealand has officially been declared coronavirus-free.

Speaking of this, Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, says that this week anyone crossing the border into New Zealand will be tested twice in a two-week period. There will also be surveillance testing of anyone working at or around the border, he says. Community based testing will continue, with a focus on anyone with symptoms.

New Zealand has reported 1,154 infections and 22 deaths from the disease. The country, with only five million people, is emerging out of the pandemic, while huge economies like the USA, Brazil and India continues to grapple with the virus.

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In a poll conducted by the Newshub-Reid Research, New Zealand’s Prime minister Jacinda Ardern has been voted the most popular PM in a century. The reason for this spike in approval is because of her efforts in containing the virus. Their citizens are now calling it the ‘Jacinda-mania’.

For the first time since the pandemic the opinion polls conducted, showed Ardern’s Labour Party getting the highest approval rating ever received by any party at 56.5%.

This poll, which was conducted between May 8 and 16, was based on the public’s reaction to the third level of lockdown. Their government eased the lockdown around late April, after a month of strict level 4 lockdown, opening businesses like malls, gyms and cafes.

New Zealand is steadily emerging victorious from the pandemic, at a rate of 1499 total cases and 21 deaths compared to the global number of 4.7 million cases and 315000 deaths.

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