New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern hopes to win election for her successful COVID-19 response

With less than a week left for polls, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is campaigning for a second term riding on the success of her administration's COVID-19 pandemic response. 

Speaking at a campaign rally in capital Wellington, Ardern is reported to have said that although there isn't any “playbook” for the pandemic, the country went “hard and early” and eventually curbed the spread of COVID-19. This comes as millions of voters are gearing up for parliamentary elections which are scheduled to take place on October 17.

Ardern, who in 2017 became the youngest female Prime Minister in the world, has been showered with plaudits for her quick and reaction to the pandemic. Taking the hard path, the New Zealand leader imposes a level 4 lockdown even before the virus has spread in the country. Under Ardern's leadership, New Zealand became the first country to declare itself COVID-19 free. 

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Read: New Zealand PM Votes A Week Before Polls Close In Election

No lockdown in Auckland

On October 5, New Zealand lifted the strict COVID-19 restrictions in Auckland announcing that the city will be moving to alert level 1 from October 8. While lifting the restrictions, Ardern said that the second wave of infections had been eliminated in Auckland. 

In a press conference earlier, the New Zealand PM had said that throughout the pandemic, the country has maintained a very low death rate and also has one of the lowest death rates in the world.  The COVID-19 pandemic which saw its first outbreak in a wet market in Wuhan, China last year has now gripped the world. As per the John Hopkins University, New Zealand has confirmed 1,514 cases of COVID-19 and just 25 deaths in a population of five million.

Read: COVID-19: New Zealand PM Lifts Lockdown In Auckland, Says 'we Beat The Virus Again'

Read: New Zealand PM Votes A Week Before Polls Close In Election

(Image Credits: AP)