New

Zealand has eliminated the coronavirus (COVID-19) and will remove its social

distancing measures, the country’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.

Ardern

said there are no active cases in its population of 4.9 million people, adding

that the country will end all its restrictions on businesses and people as it

moves towards returning to normalcy.

The nation

has not had a confirmed COVID-19 case for 17 days.

However, New

Zealand’s borders will continue to be closed to non-nationals, which will

further hurt its largest earner of foreign exchange, tourism.

The country

said only its nationals and some foreign workers with special skills will be

exempted during the continued border closure.

“We united in unprecedented ways to crush the virus. Our goal was to

move out the other side as quickly and as safely as we could. We now have a

head-start on our economic recovery,” Ardern said at a press conference

in Wellington.

New

Zealand recorded 1,504 total confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 22 deaths.