It is, however, false - the elimination strategy doesn't depend only on lockdowns and it never has. Lynn Grieveson/Newsroom New Zealand's elimination strategy doesn't have to rely on lockdowns - and it never has. Eliminating Covid-19 at Level 2Baker says that testing and tracing capacity is what New Zealand will rely on to avoid lockdowns in the future. And the aim would be to be able to do that at no higher than an Alert Level 2 setting." Ardern reiterated in comments on Friday and on Monday that the elimination plan doesn't require immediate lockdowns in response to community cases.

Source: Stuff August 26, 2020 03:22 UTC