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Comment by beachy | Hacker News Reader

Here in new Zealand we are embarked on a total eradication path. Just yesterday a friend was espousing that even if we succeed, sooner or later we'll have to join Sweden anyway (unless a vaccine arrives) as the only alternative is to keep our borders entirely shut. Personally I don't have a problem with that, as I have several elderly relatives, but it's amazing to contemplate the decisions that await us all in these strange times.

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NZ could quarantine travelers who come in and use extensive testing, temperature checks, etc. to keep it from coming back. Or yes, it could give up on the amazing progress already made in eradicating the virus, open everything up, and not give it a second thought like Sweden. Can't imagine the people in charge would be that stupid, however, to give up all they achieved and let people die unnecessarily.

For an isolated country like New Zealand it's possible to secure the borders, and institute a mandatory 2 week quarantine and testing of visitors. They may be able to relax that quarantine for travelers from countries with very low infection rates.

What about fast, easy-to-administer, inexpensive and accurate tests becoming available, allowing procedures to be set up to test people at airports before departing?

What about them? Do they exist yet? How long until we know they're accurate?

That is one path. You'd probably need to require daily covid tests afterward though for a few days. PCR has a 100% false negative rate the day of infection.

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