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Coronavirus: Jacinda Ardern hits back as Trump says New Zealand has ‘big surge’
- ‘Anyone who is following will quite easily see New Zealand’s nine cases a day does not compare to the United States’ tens of thousands,’ she said
- Auckland city was recently put back into lockdown after a new outbreak emerged last week
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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday slapped down US President Donald Trump’s talk of an out-of-control coronavirus “surge” in New Zealand as “patently wrong”.
She expressed dismay after Trump exaggerated the new virus outbreak in New Zealand as a “big surge” that Americans would do well to avoid.
“Anyone who is following will quite easily see that New Zealand’s nine cases in a day does not compare to the United States’ tens of thousands,” she said.
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New Zealand hits back after Donald Trump claims the country has ‘terrible’ Covid-19 surge
New Zealand hits back after Donald Trump claims the country has ‘terrible’ Covid-19 surge
“Obviously, it’s patently wrong,” she added of Trump’s remarks, in unusually blunt criticism from an American ally.
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New Zealand had been hailed as a global success story after eradicating local transmission of the virus and Ardern was lauded as the “anti-Trump”.
But the recent discovery of a cluster in Auckland forced the country’s largest city back into lockdown.
At an election rally in Minnesota on Monday, Trump jumped on that development as evidence his critics – who held up New Zealand as an example – were wrong.
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