Jacinda Ardern Working With Joe Biden On Strategy To Tackle Coronavirus

Jacinda Ardern has been heaped with praise for how she’s handled the coronavirus pandemic in New Zealand, and now it seems as though she’s helping to steer the United States on the right track, too.

The Prime Minister of New Zealand is said to have been in contact with President-elect Joe Biden, putting him in touch with her country’s health officials to discuss how best to curb the virus.

Since the pandemic began, New Zealand has recorded just 2,030 infections and 25 deaths, having successfully beaten community transmission of the virus twice, with just 58 cases remaining, all of which are in controlled isolation facilities.

These statistics are, sadly, a long way off those recorded in the states, where more than 256,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19.

Now, Ardern has offered to share information with the president-elect that could help him in steering the country out of the pandemic.

‘I offered to him and his team access to New Zealand health officials in order to share their experience on things we’ve learnt on our COVID-19 journey,’ she said in a press conference on Monday, November 23, as per Reuters.

Although Biden hasn’t commented on whether he will choose to accept the offer, it’s likely he’ll be grateful of the international support, with current President Donald Trump refusing to allow him to begin the transition of power.

Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have been trying to get to work on putting together a coronavirus task force. Meanwhile, Trump, who is yet to concede the election, has reportedly failed to turn up to a number of his own task force meetings.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health, confirmed the president hadn’t attended a White House coronavirus meeting in five months.

Speaking on ABC’s This Week, Giroir confirmed the reports, telling the news station that Vice President Mike Pence attends instead.

‘The vice president briefs the president every day or nearly every day on coronavirus, so I’m not concerned that the president doesn’t attend,’ he said, as per Forbes.

Biden has, however, warned that as long as Trump continues to block the transition of power, more lives could be lost to the virus.

When asked what his biggest concern about being unable to start the transition process during a press conference, Biden simply said, ‘More people may die, if we don’t co-ordinate.’

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