title: Alpha (2018 film)

text: In the United States and Canada, "Alpha" was released alongside "Mile 22", and was projected to gross $7–9million from 2,719 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $3.4million on its first day, including $525,000 from Thursday night previews at 2,303 theaters. It went on to debut to $10.3million, finishing fifth at the box office. In its second weekend the film dropped to seventh place, making $5.6million.


title: Alpha (2018 film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, "Alpha" holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "Well-acted and beautifully filmed, "Alpha" offers a canine-assisted epic adventure that blends rousing action with an extra helping of canine charm." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Polyphemus

text: Polyphemus (; , ; ) is the one-eyed giant son of Poseidon and Thoosa in Greek mythology, one of the Cyclopes described in Homer's "Odyssey". His name means "abounding in songs and legends". Polyphemus first appeared as a savage man-eating giant in the ninth book of the "Odyssey". The satyr play of Euripides is dependent on this episode apart from one detail; Polyphemus is made a pederast in the play. Later Classical writers presented him in their poems as heterosexual and linked his name with the nymph Galatea. Often he was portrayed as unsuccessful in these, and as unaware of his disproportionate size and musical failings. In the work of even later authors, however, he is presented as both a successful lover and skilled musician. From the Renaissance on, art and literature reflect all of these interpretations of the giant.


title: Polyphemus

text: In Homer's epic, Odysseus lands on the island of the Cyclopes during his journey home from the Trojan War and, together with some of his men, enters a cave filled with provisions. When the giant Polyphemus returns home with his flocks, he blocks the entrance with a great stone and, scoffing at the usual custom of hospitality, eats two of the men. Next morning, the giant kills and eats two more and leaves the cave to graze his sheep.


title: Polyphemus

text: After the giant returns in the evening and eats two more of the men, Odysseus offers Polyphemus some strong and undiluted wine given to him earlier on his journey. Drunk and unwary, the giant asks Odysseus his name, promising him a guest-gift if he answers. Odysseus tells him "Οὖτις", which means "nobody" and Polyphemus promises to eat this "Nobody" last of all. With that, he falls into a drunken sleep. Odysseus had meanwhile hardened a wooden stake in the fire and drives it into Polyphemus' eye. When Polyphemus shouts for help from his fellow giants, saying that "Nobody" has hurt him, they think Polyphemus is being afflicted by divine power and recommend prayer as the answer.


title: Polyphemus

text: In the morning, the blind Cyclops lets the sheep out to graze, feeling their backs to ensure that the men are not escaping. However, Odysseus and his men have tied themselves to the undersides of the animals and so get away. As he sails off with his men, Odysseus boastfully reveals his real name, an act of hubris that was to cause problems for him later. Polyphemus prays to his father, Poseidon, for revenge and casts huge rocks towards the ship, which Odysseus barely escapes.


title: Polyphemus

text: The story reappears in later Classical literature. In "Cyclops", the 5th-century BC play by Euripides, a chorus of satyrs offers comic relief from the grisly story of how Polyphemus is punished for his impious behaviour in not respecting the rites of hospitality. In this play, Polyphemus claims to be a pederast, revealing to Odysseus that he takes more pleasure in boys than in women, and tries to take the satyr Silenus, who he kept together with his sons as slaves on Mount Etna in Sicily, calling him "my Ganymede". The scene is infused with low comedy, specifically from the chorus, and Polyphemus is made to look silly: he is drunk when he explains his sexual desire, Silenus is too old to play the part of the young lover, and he himself will be subjected to penetration—with the wooden spike. In his Latin epic, Virgil describes how Aeneas observes blind Polyphemus as he leads his flocks down to the sea. They have encountered Achaemenides, who re-tells the story of how Odysseus and his men escaped, leaving him behind. The giant is described as descending to the shore, using a "lopped pine tree" as a walking staff. Once Polyphemus reaches the sea, he washes his oozing, bloody eye socket and groans painfully. Achaemenides is taken aboard Aeneas’ vessel and they cast off with Polyphemus in chase. His great roar of frustration brings the rest of the Cyclopes down to the shore as Aeneas draws away in fear.


title: Polyphemus

text: During the seventh century, the potters gave preference to scenes from both epics, "The Odyssey" and "the Iliad", almost half being that of the blinding of the Cyclops and the ruse by which Odysseus and his men escape. One such episode, on a vase featuring the hero carried beneath a sheep, was used on a 27 drachma Greek postage stamp in 1983. This was a steep drop (to the point of being "insignificant") from the volume of pan-Hellenic pottery discovered from the fifth and sixth centuries, which largely depicted ancient Greek mythology: scenes from the Trojan War or deeds from Heracles or Perseus.


title: Polyphemus

text: The blinding was depicted in life-size sculpture, including a giant Polyphemus, in the Sperlonga sculptures probably made for the Emperor Tiberius. This may be an interpretation of an existing composition, and was apparently repeated in variations in later Imperial palaces by Claudius, Nero and at Hadrian's Villa.


title: Polyphemus

text: Of the European painters of the subject, the Flemish Jacob Jordaens depicted Odysseus escaping from the cave of Polyphemus in 1635 (see gallery below) and others chose the dramatic scene of the giant casting boulders at the escaping ship. In Guido Reni's painting of 1639/40 (see above), the furious giant is tugging a boulder from the cliff as Odysseus and his men row out to the ship far below. Polyphemus is portrayed, as it often happens, with two empty eye sockets and his damaged eye located in the middle on his forehead. This convention goes back to Greek statuary and painting, and is reproduced in Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein's 1802 head and shoulders portrait of the giant (see below).


title: Polyphemus

text: Arnold Böcklin pictures the giant as standing on rocks onshore and swinging one of them back as the men row desperately over a surging wave (see below), while Polyphemus is standing at the top of a cliff in Jean-Léon Gérôme's painting of 1902. He stands poised, having already thrown one stone, which barely misses the ship. The reason for his rage is depicted in J. M. W. Turner's painting, "Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus" (1829). Here the ship sails forward as the sun breaks free of clouds low on the horizon. The giant himself is an indistinct shape barely distinguished from the woods and smoky atmosphere high above.


title: Polyphemus

text: Folktales similar to that of Homer's Polyphemus are a widespread phenomenon throughout the ancient world. In 1857, Wilhelm Grimm collected versions in Serbian, Romanian, Estonian, Finnish, Russian, German, and others; versions in Basque, Lappish, Lithuanian, Gascon, Syriac, and Celtic are also known. More than two hundred different versions have been identified, from around twenty five nations, covering a geographic region extending from Iceland, Ireland, England, Portugal and Africa to Arabia, Turkey, Russia, and Korea. The consensus of current modern scholarship is that these "Polyphemus legends" preserve traditions predating Homer.


title: Polyphemus

text: An example of such a story is one from Georgia, in the Caucasus, which describes several brothers held prisoner by a giant one-eyed shepherd called "One-eye". After all but two of the brothers are roasted on a spit and eaten, the remaining two take the spit, heat it red hot, and stab it into the giant's eye. As One-eye let his flock out of their pen, he felt each sheep as it passed between his legs, but the two brothers were able to escape by covering themselves with a sheepskin.


title: Polyphemus

text: Writing more than three centuries after the Odyssey is thought to have been composed, Philoxenus of Cythera took up the myth of Polyphemus in his poem "Cyclops" or "Galatea". The poem was written to be performed as a dithyramb, of which only fragments have survived, and was perhaps the first to provide a female love interest for the Cyclops. The object of Polyphemus’ romantic desire is a sea nymph named Galatea. In the poem, Polyphemus is not a cave dwelling, monstrous brute, as in the "Odyssey", but instead he is rather like Odysseus himself in his vision of the world: He has weaknesses, he is adept at literary criticism, and he understands people.


title: Polyphemus

text: The date of composition for the "Cyclops" is not precisely known, but it must be prior to 388 BC, when Aristophanes parodied it in his comedy "Plutus" ("Wealth"); and probably after 406 BC, when Dionysius I became tyrant of Syracuse. Philoxenus lived in that city and was the court poet of Dionysius I. According to ancient commentators, either because of his frankness regarding Dionysius' poetry, or because of a conflict with the tyrant over a female aulos player named Galatea, Philoxenus was imprisoned in the quarries and had there composed his "Cyclops" in the manner of a "Roman à clef", where the poem's characters, Polyphemus, Odysseus and Galatea, were meant to represent Dionysius, Philoxenus, and the aulos-player. Philoxenus had his Polyphemus perform on the cithara, a professional lyre requiring great skill. The Cyclops playing such a sophisticated and fashionable instrument would have been quite a surprising juxtaposition for Philoxenus' audience.


title: Polyphemus

text: Philoxenus' "Cyclops" is also referred to in Aristotle's "Poetics" in a section that discusses representations of people in tragedy and comedy, citing as comedic examples the "Cyclops" of both Timotheus and Philoxenus.


title: Polyphemus

text: The text of Aristophanes' last extant play "Plutus" ("Wealth") has survived with almost all of its choral odes missing. What remains shows Aristophanes (as he does to some extent in all his plays) parodying a contemporary literary work — in this case Philoxenus’ "Cyclops". While making fun of literary aspects of Philoxenus' dithyramb, Aristophanes is at the same time commenting on musical developments occurring in the fourth century BC, developing themes that run through the whole play. It also contains lines and phrases taken directly from the "Cyclops".


title: Polyphemus

text: The slave Cario, tells the chorus that his master has brought home with him the god Wealth, and because of this they will all now be rich. The chorus wants to dance for joy, so Cario takes the lead by parodying Philoxenus' "Cyclops". As a solo performer leading a chorus that sings and dances, Cario recreates the form of a dithyramb. He first casts himself in the role of Polyphemus while assigning to the chorus the roles of sheep and goats, at the same time imitating the sound of a lyre: "And now I wish — threttanello! — to imitate the Cyclops and, swinging my feet to and fro like this, to lead you in the dance. But come on, children, shout and shout again the songs of bleating sheep and smelly goats." The chorus, however, does not want to play sheep and goats, they would rather be Odysseus and his men, and they threaten to blind Cario (as had Odysseus the drunken Cyclops) with a wooden stake.


title: Polyphemus

text: The romantic element, originated by Philoxenus, was revived by later Hellenistic poets, including Theocritus, Callimachus, Hermesianax, and Bion of Smyrna.


title: Polyphemus

text: Theocritus is credited with creating the genre of pastoral poetry. His works are titled "Idylls" and of these Idyll XI tells the story of the Cyclops' love for Galatea. Though the character of Polyphemus derives from Homer, there are notable differences. Where Homer's Cyclops was beastly and wicked, Theocritus' is absurd, lovesick and comic. Polyphemus loves the sea nymph Galatea, but she rejects him because of his ugliness. However, in a borrowing from Philoxenus’ poem, Polyphemus has discovered that music will heal lovesickness, and so he plays the panpipes and sings of his woes, for "I am skilled in piping as no other Cyclops here”. His longing is to overcome the antithetic elements that divide them, he of earth and she of water:


title: Polyphemus

text: The love of the mismatched pair was later taken up by other pastoral poets. The same trope of music being the cure for love was introduced by Callimachus in his Epigram 47: "How excellent was the charm that Polyphemus discovered for the lover. By Earth, the Cyclops was no fool!" A fragment of a lost idyll by Bion also portrays Polyphemus declaring his undying love for Galatea. Referring back to this, an elegy on Bion's death that was once attributed to Moschus takes the theme further in a piece of hyperbole. Where Polyphemus had failed, the poet declares, Bion's greater artistry had won Galatea's heart, drawing her from the sea to tend his herds. This reflected the situation in Idyll VI of Theocritus. There two herdsmen engage in a musical competition, one of them playing the part of Polyphemus, who asserts that since he has adopted the ruse of ignoring Galatea, she has now become the one who pursues him.


title: Polyphemus

text: The successful outcome of Polyphemus' love was also alluded to in the course of a 1st-century BC love elegy on the power of music by the Latin poet Propertius. Listed among the examples he mentions is that "Even Galatea, it's true, below wild Etna, wheeled her brine-wet horses, Polyphemus, to your songs." The division of contrary elements between the land-based monster and the sea nymph, lamented in Theocritus’ Idyll 11, is brought into harmony by this means.


title: Polyphemus

text: While Ovid's treatment of the story that he introduced into the "Metamorphoses" is reliant on the idylls of Theocritus, it is complicated by the introduction of Acis, who has now become the focus of Galatea's love.


title: Polyphemus

text: There is also a reversion to the Homeric vision of the hulking monster, whose attempt to play the tender shepherd singing love songs is made a source of humour by Galatea:


title: Polyphemus

text: In his own character, too, Polyphemus mentions the transgression of heavenly laws that once characterised his actions and is now overcome by Galatea: "I, who scorn Jove and his heaven and his piercing lightning bolt, submit to you alone."


title: Polyphemus

text: Galatea listens to the love song of Polyphemus while she and Acis lie hidden by a rock. In his song, Polyphemus scolds her for not loving him in return, offers her rustic gifts and points out what he considers his best feature — the single eye that is, he boasts, the size of a great shield. But when Polyphemus discovers the hiding place of the lovers, he becomes enraged with jealousy. Galatea, terrified, dives into the ocean, while the Cyclops wrenches off a piece of the mountain and crushes Acis with it. But on her return, Galatea changes her dead lover into the spirit of the Sicilian river Acis.


title: Polyphemus

text: That the story sometimes had a more successful outcome for Polyphemus is also attested in the arts. In one of the murals rescued from the site of Pompeii, Polyphemus is pictured seated on a rock with a cithara (rather than a syrinx) by his side, holding out a hand to receive a love letter from Galatea, which is carried by a winged Cupid riding on a dolphin.


title: Polyphemus

text: In another fresco, also dating from the 1st century AD, the two stand locked in a naked embrace (see below). From their union came the ancestors of various wild and war-like races. According to some accounts, the Celts (Galati in Latin, Γάλλοi in Greek) were descended from their son Galatos, while Appian credited them with three children, Celtus, Illyrius and Galas, from whom descend the Celts, the Illyrians and the Gauls respectively.


title: Polyphemus

text: There are indications that Polyphemus’ courtship also had a more successful outcome in one of the dialogues of Lucian of Samosata. There Doris, one of Galatea's sisters, spitefully congratulates her on her love conquest and she defends Polyphemus. From the conversation, one understands that Doris is chiefly jealous that her sister has a lover. Galatea admits that she does not love Polyphemus but is pleased to have been chosen by him in preference to all her companions.


title: Polyphemus

text: That their conjunction was fruitful is also implied in a later Greek epic from the turn of the 5th century AD. In the course of his "Dionysiaca", Nonnus gives an account of the wedding of Poseidon and Beroe, at which the Nereid "Galatea twangled a marriage dance and restlessly twirled in capering step, and she sang the marriage verses, for she had learnt well how to sing, being taught by Polyphemos with a shepherd's syrinx."


title: Polyphemus

text: During Renaissance and Baroque times Ovid's story emerged again as a popular theme. In Spain Luis de Góngora y Argote wrote the much admired narrative poem, "Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea", published in 1627. It is particularly noted for its depiction of landscape and for the sensual description of the love of Acis and Galatea. It was written in homage to an earlier and rather shorter narrative with the same title by Luis Carillo y Sotomayor (1611). The story was also given operatic treatment in the very popular zarzuela of Antoni Lliteres Carrió (1708). The atmosphere here is lighter and enlivened by the inclusion of the clowns Momo and Tisbe.


title: Polyphemus

text: In France the story was condensed to the fourteen lines of Tristan L'Hermite's sonnet "Polyphème en furie" (1641). In it the giant expresses his fury upon viewing the loving couple, ultimately throwing the huge rock that kills Acis and even injures Galatea. Later in the century, Jean-Baptiste Lully composed his opera Acis et Galatée (1686) on the theme.


title: Polyphemus

text: In Italy Giovanni Bononcini composed the one-act opera "Polifemo" (1703). Shortly afterwards George Frideric Handel worked in that country and composed the cantata "Aci, Galatea e Polifemo" (1708), laying as much emphasis on the part of Polifemo as on the lovers. Written in Italian, Polifemo's deep bass solo "Fra l'ombre e gl'orrori" (From horrid shades) establishes his character from the start. After Handel's move to England, he gave the story a new treatment in his pastoral opera "Acis and Galatea" with an English libretto provided by John Gay. Initially composed in 1718, the work went through many revisions and was later to be given updated orchestrations by both Mozart and Mendelssohn.* As a pastoral work it is suffused with Theocritan atmosphere but largely centres on the two lovers. When Polyphemus declares his love in the lyric “O ruddier than the cherry”, the effect is almost comic. Handel's rival for a while on the London scene, Nicola Porpora, also made the story the subject of his opera "Polifemo" (1735).


title: Polyphemus

text: Later in the century Joseph Haydn composed "Acide e Galatea" (1763) as his first opera while in Vienna. Designed for an imperial wedding, it was given a happy ending centred on the transformation scene after the murder of Acis as the pair declare their undying love. Johann Gottlieb Naumann was to turn the story into a comic opera, "Aci e Galatea", with the subtitle "i ciclopi amanti" (the amorous cyclops). The work was first performed in Dresden in 1801 and its plot was made more complicated by giving Polifemo a companion, Orgonte. There were also two other lovers, Dorinda and Lisia, with Orgonte Lisia's rival for Dorinda's love.


title: Polyphemus

text: After John Gay's libretto in Britain, it was not until the 19th century that the subject was given further poetical treatment. In 1819 appeared "The Death of Acis" by Bryan Procter, writing under the name of Barry Cornwall. A blank verse narrative with lyric episodes, it celebrates the musicianship of Polyphemus, which draws the lovers to expose themselves from their hiding place in a cave and thus brings about the death of Acis. At the other end of the century, there was Alfred Austin's dramatic poem "Polyphemus", which is set after the murder and transformation of the herdsman. The giant is tortured by hearing the happy voices of Galatea and Acis as they pursue their love duet. Shortly afterwards Albert Samain wrote the 2-act verse drama "Polyphème" with the additional character of Lycas, Galatea's younger brother. In this the giant is humanised; sparing the lovers when he discovers them, he blinds himself and wades to his death in the sea. The play was first performed posthumously in 1904 with incidental music by Raymond Bonheur. On this the French composer Jean Cras based his operatic ‘lyric tragedy’, composed in 1914 and first performed in 1922. Cras took Samain's text almost unchanged, subdividing the play's two acts into four and cutting a few lines from Polyphemus' final speech.


title: Polyphemus

text: There have also been two Spanish musical items that reference Polyphemus' name. Reginald Smith Brindle's four fragments for guitar, "El Polifemo de Oro" (1956), takes its title from Federico García Lorca's poem, “The riddle of the guitar”. That speaks of six dancing maidens (the guitar strings) entranced by ‘a golden Polyphemus’ (the one-eyed sound-hole). The Spanish composer Andres Valero Castells takes the inspiration for his "Polifemo i Galatea" from Gongora's work. Originally written for brass band in 2001, he rescored it for orchestra in 2006.


title: Polyphemus

text: Paintings that include Polyphemus in the story of Acis and Galatea can be grouped according to their themes. Most notably the story takes place within a pastoral landscape in which the figures are almost incidental. This is particularly so in Nicolas Poussin's 1649 "Landscape with Polyphemus" (see gallery below) in which the lovers play a minor part in the foreground. To the right, Polyphemus merges with a distant mountain top on which he plays his pipes. In an earlier painting by Poussin from 1630 (now housed at the Dublin National Gallery) the couple are among several embracing figures in the foreground, shielded from view of Polyphemus, who is playing his flute higher up the slope. Another variation on the theme was painted by Pietro Dandini during this period.


title: Polyphemus

text: An earlier fresco by Giulio Romano from 1528 seats Polyphemus against a rocky foreground with a lyre in his raised right hand. The lovers can just be viewed through a gap in the rock that gives onto the sea at the lower right. (1681) represents a seated Polyphemus in his sculpture, except that in his version it is pipes that the giant holds in his lowered hand. Otherwise he has a massive club held across his body and turns to the left to look over his shoulder.


title: Polyphemus

text: Other paintings take up the Theocritan theme of the pair divided by the elements with which they are identified, land and water. There are a series of paintings, often titled "The Triumph of Galatea", in which the nymph is carried through the sea by her Nereid sisters, while a minor figure of Polyphemus serenades her from the land. Typical examples of this were painted by François Perrier, Giovanni Lanfranco and Jean-Baptiste van Loo.


title: Polyphemus

text: A whole series of paintings by Gustave Moreau make the same point in a variety of subtle ways. The giant spies on Galatea through the wall of a sea grotto or emerges from a cliff to adore her sleeping figure (see below). Again, Polyphemus merges with the cliff where he meditates in the same way that Galatea merges with her element within the grotto in the painting at Musée d'Orsay. The visionary interpretation of the story also finds its echo in Odilon Redon's 1913 painting "The Cyclops" in which the giant towers over the slope on which Galatea sleeps.


title: Polyphemus

text: French sculptors have also been responsible for some memorable versions. Auguste Ottin's separate figures are brought together in an 1866 fountain in the Luxembourg Garden. Above is crouched the figure of Polyphemus in weathered bronze, peering down at the white marble group of Acis and Galatea embracing below (see above). A little later Auguste Rodin made a series of statues, centred on Polyphemus. Originally modelled in clay around 1888 and later cast in bronze, they may have been inspired by Ottin's work.


title: Polyphemus

text: A final theme is the rage that succeeds the moment of discovery. That is portrayed in earlier paintings of Polyphemus casting a rock at the fleeing lovers, such as those by Annibale Carracci, Lucas Auger and Carle van Loo. Jean-Francois de Troy's 18th-century version combines discovery with aftermath as the giant perched above the lovers turns to wrench up a rock.


title: Polyphemus

text: Polyphemus is mentioned in the "Apprentice" chapter of Albert Pike's "Morals and Dogma" (1871), as, within Scottish Rite Freemasonry, Polyphemus is regarded as a symbol for a civilization that harms itself using ill directed blind force.


title: Polyphemus

text: A species of burrowing tortoise, "Gopherus polyphemus", is named after Polyphemus because of their both using subterranean retreats.


title: Polyphemus

text: In folkloristics, the episode of the blinding of Polyphemus is also known as "Polyphemsage" and classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 1137, "The Ogre Blinded (Polyphemus)".


title: Zero-COVID

text: Zero-COVID, also known as COVID-Zero and "Find, Test, Trace, Isolate, and Support" (FTTIS), is a public health policy that has been implemented by some countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast to the living with COVID-19 strategy, the zero-COVID strategy is one "of control and maximum suppression". It involves using public health measures such as contact tracing, mass testing, border quarantine, lockdowns, and mitigation software in order to stop community transmission of COVID-19 as soon as it is detected. The goal of the strategy is to get the area back to zero new infections and resume normal economic and social activities.


title: Zero-COVID

text: A zero-COVID strategy consists of two phases: an initial suppression phase in which the virus is eliminated locally using aggressive public health measures, and a sustained containment phase, in which normal economic and social activities resume and public health measures are used to contain new outbreaks before they spread widely. This strategy has been utilized to varying degrees by Australia, Bhutan, Atlantic and Northern Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Montserrat, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Korea, Northern Ireland, Singapore, Scotland, South Korea, Taiwan, East Timor, Tonga, and Vietnam. Since late 2021, due to challenges with the increased transmissibility of the Delta and Omicron variants, and also the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, most countries have stopped pursuing zero-COVID. As of December 2022, North Korea is the only country still pursuing a zero-COVID strategy.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Experts differentiate between zero-COVID, which is an elimination strategy, and mitigation strategies that attempt to lessen the effects of the virus on society, but which still tolerate some level of transmission within the community. These initial strategies can be pursued sequentially or simultaneously during the acquired immunity phase through natural and vaccine-induced immunity.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Advocates of zero-COVID have pointed to the far lower death rates and higher economic growth in countries that have pursued elimination during the first 12 months of the pandemic (i.e., prior to widespread vaccination) compared with countries that have pursued mitigation, and argue that swift, strict measures to eliminate the virus allow a faster return to normal life. Opponents of zero-COVID argue that "it's not realistic to eliminate a respiratory virus such as SARS-CoV-2, any more than it is to eliminate the flu or the common cold." To achieve zero-COVID in an area with high infection rates, one review estimated that it would take three months of strict lockdown.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Epidemiologists differentiate between two broad strategies for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic: mitigation and elimination. Mitigation strategies (also commonly known as "flattening the curve") aim to reduce the growth of an epidemic and to prevent the healthcare system from becoming overburdened, yet still accept a level of ongoing viral transmission within the community. By contrast, elimination strategies (commonly known as "zero-COVID") aim to completely stop the spread of the virus within the community, which was seen as the optimal way to allow the resumption of normal social and economic activity. In comparison with mitigation strategies, elimination involves stricter short-term measures to completely eliminate the virus, followed by milder long-term measures to prevent a return of the virus.


title: Zero-COVID

text: After elimination of COVID-19 from a region, zero-COVID strategies require stricter border controls in order to prevent reintroduction of the virus, more rapid identification of new outbreaks and better contact tracing to end new outbreaks. Advocates of zero-COVID argue that the costs of these measures are lower than the economic and social costs of long-term social distancing measures and increased mortality incurred by mitigation strategies.


title: Zero-COVID

text: The long-term "exit path" for both elimination and mitigation strategies depends on the development of effective vaccines and treatments for COVID-19.


title: Zero-COVID

text: The zero-COVID approach aims to prevent viral transmission, using a number of different measures, including vaccination and non-pharmaceutical interventions such as contact-tracing and quarantine. Successful containment or suppression reduces the basic reproduction number of the virus below the critical threshold. Different combinations of measures are used during the initial containment phase, when the virus is first eliminated from a region, and the sustained containment phase, when the goal is to prevent reestablishment of viral transmission within the community.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Lockdowns encompass measures such as closures of non-essential businesses, stay-at-home orders, and movement restrictions. During lockdowns, governments must often supply basic necessities to households. Lockdown measures are commonly used to achieve initial containment of the virus. In China, lockdowns of specific high-risk communities are also sometimes used to suppress new outbreaks.


title: Zero-COVID

text: In order to prevent reintroduction of the virus into zero-COVID regions after initial containment has been achieved, quarantine for incoming travelers is commonly used. As each infected traveler could seed a new outbreak, the goal of travel quarantine is to intercept as large a percentage of infected travelers as possible.


title: Zero-COVID

text: International flights to China are heavily restricted, and incoming travelers are required to undergo PCR testing and quarantine in designated hotels and facilities. In order to facilitate quarantine for travelers, China has constructed specialized facilities at its busiest ports of entry, including Guangzhou and Xiamen. New Zealand and Australia have also established managed isolation and quarantine facilities for incoming travelers.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Through November 2020, border quarantine measures prevented nearly 4,000 infected international travelers from entering the wider community within China. Each month, hundreds of travelers who test negative before flying to China subsequently test positive while undergoing quarantine after arrival.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Contact-tracing involves identifying people who have been exposed to (or "came into close contact with") an infected person. Public health workers then attempt to locate all of those exposed persons, and quarantine them until they either are unlikely to be infectious or receive several negative tests. This is in addition to isolating the known infected person. Various studies have argued that early detection and isolation of infected people is the single most effective measure for preventing transmission of SARS-CoV-2. "Quarantine" refers to the separation of exposed persons who could possibly be infected from the rest of society, while "isolation" refers to the separation of persons who are known to be infected.


title: Zero-COVID

text: In China, when an infected person is identified, all close contacts are required to undergo a 14-day quarantine with multiple rounds of PCR testing. In order to minimize the risk that these close contacts pose for outbreak containment, China has implemented quarantine in centralized facilities for those deemed to be at the highest-risk of infection. Secondary close contacts (contacts of close contacts) are sometimes required to quarantine at home.


title: Zero-COVID

text: The widespread use of smartphones has enabled more rapid "digital" contact tracing. In China, "health code" applications are used to facilitate the identification of close contacts, via analysis of Bluetooth logs which show proximity between devices. Taiwan has also made use of digital contact tracing, notably to locate close contacts of passengers who disembarked from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, the site of an early outbreak in February 2020.


title: Zero-COVID

text: In China, routine PCR testing is carried out on all patients who present with fever or respiratory symptoms. In addition, various categories of workers, such as medical staff and workers who handle imported goods, are regularly tested.


title: Zero-COVID

text: In China, routine testing of key populations has identified index patients in a number of outbreaks, including outbreaks in Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Qingdao, and Manchuria. In some cases, index patients have been discovered while asymptomatic, limiting the amount of onward transmission into the community.


title: Zero-COVID

text: An additional tool for identifying cases outside of known transmission chains is community-wide screening, in which populations of specific neighborhoods or cities are PCR tested. In China, community-wide PCR testing is carried out during outbreaks in order to identify infected people, including those without symptoms or known contact with infected people. Community-wide screening is intended to rapidly isolate infected people from the general population, and to allow a quicker return to normal economic activity. China first carried out community-wide screening from 14 May to 1 June 2020 in Wuhan, and has used this technique in subsequent outbreaks. In outbreaks in June 2020 in Beijing and July 2020 in Dalian, community screening identified 26% and 22% of infections, respectively. In order to test large populations quickly, China commonly uses pooled testing, combining 5 to 10 samples before testing, and retesting all individuals in each batch that tests positive.


title: Zero-COVID

text: The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 January 2020, in Victoria, when a man who had returned from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, tested positive for the virus. A human biosecurity emergency was declared on 18 March 2020. Australian borders were closed to all non-residents on 20 March, and returning residents were required to spend two weeks in supervised quarantine hotels from 27 March. Many individual states and territories also closed their borders to varying degrees, with some remaining closed until late 2020, and continuing to periodically close during localised outbreaks.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Social distancing rules were introduced on 21 March, and state governments started to close "non-essential" services. "Non-essential services" included social gathering venues such as pubs and clubs but unlike many other countries did not include most business operations such as construction, manufacturing and many retail categories.


title: Zero-COVID

text: During the second wave of May and June 2020, Victoria underwent a second strict lockdown with the use of helicopters and the Army to help the police enforce the "zero Covid" lockdown, which would become a norm of deployment, such as during the COVID-19 Delta variant outbreak in Sydney a year later. The wave ended with zero new cases being recorded on 26 October 2020. Distinctive aspects of that response included early interventions to reduce reflected transmission from countries other than China during late January and February 2020; early recruitment of a large contact tracing workforce; comparatively high public trust in government responses to the pandemic, at least compared to the US; and later on, the use of short, intense lockdowns to facilitate exhaustive contact tracing of new outbreaks. Australia's international borders also remained largely closed, with limited numbers of strictly controlled arrivals, for the duration of the pandemic. Australia sought to develop a Bluetooth-based contact tracing app that does not use the privacy-preserving Exposure Notification framework supported natively by Android and Apple smartphones, and while these efforts were not particularly effective, QR code-based contact tracing apps became ubiquitous in Australia's businesses.


title: Zero-COVID

text: In July 2021, the Australian National Cabinet unveiled plans to live with COVID and end lockdowns and restrictions contingent on high vaccine uptake. By August 2021 amid outbreaks in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT, Prime Minister Scott Morrison conceded a return to Zero-COVID was highly unlikely. Over the following months, each Australian juristiction began a living with COVID strategy either through ending lockdowns or voluntarily allowing the virus to enter by opening borders.


title: Zero-COVID

text: As of January 2022, Bhutan was following a Zero-COVID strategy. The country enforced lockdowns on districts (dzongkhags) whenever local cases of COVID-19 were detected, and health personnel isolated elderly people and others with comorbidities who were in close contact with those COVID-19 cases. However, the Omicron variant challenged Bhutan's elimination strategy, and the country abandoned it in mid-April, instead focusing on hospitalization rates.


title: Zero-COVID

text: The virus was confirmed to have reached Canada on 27 January 2020, after an individual who had returned to Toronto from Wuhan, Hubei, China, tested positive. The first case of community transmission in Canada was confirmed in British Columbia on 5 March. In March 2020, as cases of community transmission were confirmed, all of Canada's provinces and territories declared states of emergency. Provinces and territories have, to varying degrees, implemented prohibitions on gatherings, closures of non-essential businesses and restrictions on entry with Atlantic Canada and the three Canadian Territories adopting a COVID-Zero approach. On 24 June 2020, it was announced that the four Atlantic provinces: New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador had come to an agreement of creating a free-travel bubble while maintaining low case numbers inside, effective 3 July 2020. In late November 2020, mounting cases led to the disbandment of the Atlantic Bubble, with each of the Atlantic provinces maintaining their own travel restrictions and Zero-COVID policies after the bubble burst. Throughout 2020 and 2021 infection rates and deaths in the Atlantic provinces remained low, especially compared to the more populated areas of Canada which did not implement COVID-Zero. The appearance of the Delta and Omicron variants led to the successive abandonment of COVID-Zero in Atlantic Canada at the end of 2021.


title: Zero-COVID

text: China was the first country to experience the COVID-19 pandemic. The first cluster of pneumonia patients was discovered in late December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, and a public notice on the outbreak was distributed on 31 December 2019.


title: Zero-COVID

text: On 23 January 2020, the Chinese government banned travel to and from Wuhan, and began implementing strict lockdowns in Wuhan and other cities throughout China. These measures suppressed transmission of the virus below the critical threshold, bringing the basic reproduction number of the virus to near zero. On 4 February 2020, around two weeks after the beginning of the lockdowns in Hubei province, case counts peaked in the province and began to decline thereafter. The outbreak remained largely concentrated within Hubei province, with over 80% of cases nationwide through 22 March 2020 occurring there.


title: Zero-COVID

text: The death toll in China during the initial outbreak was approximately 4,600 according to official figures (equivalent to 3.2 deaths per million population), and has been estimated at under 5,000 by a scientific study of excess pneumonia mortality published in "The BMJ".


title: Zero-COVID

text: As the epidemic receded, the focus shifted towards restarting economic activity and preventing a resurgence of the virus. Low- and medium-risk areas of the country began to ease social distancing measures on 17 February 2020. Reopening was accompanied by an increase in testing and the development of electronic "health codes" (using smartphone applications) to facilitate contact tracing. Health code applications contain personalized risk information, based on recent contacts and test results. Wuhan, the last major city to reopen, ended its lockdown on 8 April 2020.


title: Zero-COVID

text: China reported its first imported COVID-19 case from an incoming traveler on 30 January 2020. As the number of imported cases rose and the number of domestic cases fell, China began imposing restrictions on entry into the country. Inbound flights were restricted, and all incoming passengers were required to undergo quarantine.


title: Zero-COVID

text: After the containment of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) argued, "The successful containment effort builds confidence in China, based on experience and knowledge gained, that future waves of COVID-19 can be stopped, if not prevented. Case identification and management, coupled with identification and quarantine of close contacts, is a strategy that works." The China CDC rejected a mitigation strategy, and instead explained that "[t]he current strategic goal is to maintain no or minimal indigenous transmission of SARS-CoV-2 until the population is protected through immunisation with safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, at which time the risk of COVID-19 from any source should be at a minimum. This strategy buys time for urgent development of vaccines and treatments in an environment with little ongoing morbidity and mortality."


title: Zero-COVID

text: Since the end of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, there have been additional, smaller outbreaks caused by imported cases, which have been controlled through short-term, localized intense public health measures. From July through August 2021, China experienced and contained 11 outbreaks of the Delta variant, with a total of 1,390 detected cases (out of a population of 1.4 billion in mainland China). The largest of these outbreaks, in both geographic extent and in the number of people infected, began in Nanjing. The index case of the outbreak, an airport worker, tested positive on 20 July 2021, and the outbreak was traced back to an infected passenger on a flight from Moscow that had arrived on 10 July. The outbreak spread to multiple provinces before it was contained, with a total of 1,162 detected infections. China has made use of mass testing to control several outbreaks. For example, nearly the entire population of the city of Guangzhou—approximately 18 million residents—were tested over the course of three days in June 2021, during a Delta variant outbreak.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Since mid-February 2022, China has faced unprecedented waves of infections caused by the Omicron variant and subvariants, with daily cases reaching record highs in the thousands—levels not seen at any prior point in the pandemic. Similar zero-COVID measures were deployed in some areas with lockdowns in Shenzhen, Shenyang and Jilin. Other areas such as Shanghai had previously adopted a less strict approach avoiding wholesale lockdowns, only to issue a snap lockdown in late March due to rapidly rising case counts. Since 1 April, most areas of Shanghai had instituted "area-separated control". This is widely considered to be the largest lockdown event in China since Hubei in early 2020. These measures have seen some rare pushback from residents over the overzealousness of the implementation and the perceived lack of benefit.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Nationwide protests broke out in November 2022 amid growing discontent among residents over the zero-COVID policy and the resulting economic costs. "The Guardian" wrote that "The consensus among global health experts is that zero-COVID is unsustainable in the long term". Paul Hunter, professor of the University of East Anglia said that the vaccines approved in China were not as protective as the main Western vaccines, that vaccination and booster rates for the elderly were too low, and that any lifting of restrictions should be incremental to avoid overwhelming hospitals. In response to the protests, the government loosened and overhauled many of its rules, including detention for people who test positive and compulsory PCR tests, on December 7, 2022. On 12 December, the Chinese government announced it was taking one of the main health code apps, which was key in tracking people's travel history to identify whether they've been to high-risk areas, offline on the same day. Due to this, many sources have reported that China's zero-COVID policy has effectively ended.


title: Zero-COVID

text: The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Hong Kong on 23 January 2020. On 5 February, after a five-day strike by front-line medical workers, the Hong Kong government closed all but three border control points – Hong Kong International Airport, Shenzhen Bay Control Point, and Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge Control Point remaining open. Hong Kong was relatively unscathed by the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak. Some experts believe the habit of wearing masks in public since the SARS epidemic of 2003 may have helped keep its confirmed infections rates low. In a study published in April 2020 in the "Lancet", the authors expressed their belief that border restrictions, quarantine and isolation, social distancing, and behavioural changes likely all played a part in the containment of the disease up to the end of March.


title: Zero-COVID

text: After a much smaller second wave in late March and April 2020, Hong Kong saw a substantial uptick in COVID cases in July. Experts attributed this third wave to imported cases – sea crew, aircrew members, and domestic helpers made up the majority of 3rd wave infections.; Measures taken in response included a suspension of school classroom teaching until the end of the year, and an order for restaurants to seat only two persons per table and close at 10:00 p.m. taking effect on 2 December; a further tightening of restrictions saw, among other measures, a 6pm closing time of restaurants starting from 10 December, and a mandate for authorities to order partial lockdowns in locations with multiple cases of COVID-19 until all residents were tested. From late January 2021, the government repeatedly locked down residential buildings to conduct mass testings. A free mass vaccination program with the Sinovac vaccine and Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine was launched on 26 February. The government sought to counter the vaccine hesitancy by material incentives, which led to an acceleration of vaccinations in June. From early 2022, to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant, Hong Kong had been placed under tightened alert until the day it became 70% fully inoculated. Nonetheless, earlier focus and messaging about eliminating all cases had weakened the case for getting vaccinated in the first place, with less than one-quarter of people aged 80 or older having received two doses of a vaccine before Omicron surged.


title: Zero-COVID

text: By mid-February 2022, the Omicron variant had caused the largest outbreak to date in the territory; authorities modified their eradication protocols, but continued to pursue containment. By mid-March, the virus spread rapidly in the densely populated city, and researchers at University of Hong Kong estimated that almost half the population was infected at one point since the start of the outbreak, compared to only 1 percent of the population before the surge. Daily new cases peaked to over 70,000 by March, a far cry from the single-digit daily case loads from Hong Kong's successful implementation of Zero-COVID. Total deaths increased from around 200 over the two years of the pandemic to exceeding 7,000 in a span of a few weeks, leading Hong Kong's Covid-19 deaths per capita, once far lower than those of Western nations, to become the highest in the world during March. The massive death toll and high infection rates while maintaining strict eradication protocols led to the calls for authorities to review Hong Kong's Zero COVID strategy, as well as questioning the sustainability of such an approach with the Omicron variant.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Macau, like mainland China and Hong Kong, has followed a zero-COVID strategy. The city, whose economy is heavily dependent on revenues from its casinos, has closed its borders to all travelers who are not residents of Greater China. Despite its proximity to mainland China, from the beginning of the pandemic through 11 March 2022, Macau confirmed only 82 total infections and not a single death.


title: Zero-COVID

text: From mid-June to mid-July 2022, Macau saw an unprecedented wave of infections driven by the BA.5 Omicron subvariant. Health authorities imposed restrictions on activities, including ordering residents to stay at home and the closure of non-essential businesses, including for the first time since February 2020, all its casinos. After nine consecutive days of no local cases and over 14 rounds of mandatory mass testing, Macau reopened in what the city's government called a "consolidation period".


title: Zero-COVID

text: In December 2022, in line with mainland China's easing of its zero-COVID policy, Macau eased its testing and quarantine policies.


title: Zero-COVID

text: The British territory and Caribbean island of Montserrat has used a Zero-COVID strategy, using testing and quarantine on inbound travelers to prevent localized outbreaks. It had suffered just 175 cases and two deaths as of April 2022. From 31 December 2021, Montserrat suffered its first major outbreak, with 67 locally transmitted infections and one death. On 1 March 2022, the ministry of health declared the outbreak to be over, having gone 31 days without a locally transmitted case. In October 2022 Montserrat ended measures.


title: Zero-COVID

text: New Zealand reported its first case of COVID-19 on 28 February 2020. From 19 March, entry into New Zealand was limited to citizens and residents, and the country began quarantining new arrivals in converted hotels on 10 April.


title: Zero-COVID

text: On 21 March, a four-tier alert level system was introduced, and most of the country was placed under lockdown from 25 March. Due to the success of the elimination strategy, restrictions were progressively lifted between 28 April and 8 June, when the country moved to the lowest alert level, and the last restrictions (other than quarantine for travelers) were removed.


title: Zero-COVID

text: After the lifting of restrictions, New Zealand went for 102 days without any community transmission. On 11 August 2020, four members of a single family in Auckland tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, prompting a city-wide lockdown, and lesser restrictions throughout New Zealand. Additional cases related to this cluster of infections were identified over the following weeks. On 21 September, after a week without any new cases of community transmission, restrictions were dropped to the lowest level outside of Auckland. Restrictions in Auckland were eased somewhat two days later, and moved to the lowest level on 7 October.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Additional small outbreaks led to temporary restrictions in parts of New Zealand in February, March, and June 2021.


title: Zero-COVID

text: The country moved to a nationwide lockdown on 17 August 2021, after the detection of one new local case outside of quarantine in Auckland. Over the following weeks, Auckland remained under lockdown as cases rose, while the most of the rest of the country progressively eased restrictions. On 4 October 2021, the government of New Zealand announced that it was transitioning away from its zero-COVID strategy, arguing that the Delta variant made elimination infeasible.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Scotland, led by its devolved government, pursued an "elimination" COVID-19 strategy starting from April 2020. The Scottish government's approach diverged with that of the central British government in April 2020, after a UK-wide lockdown began being lifted. Scotland pursued a slower approach to lifting the lockdown than other nations of the UK, and expanded a "test and trace" system. Although Northern Ireland also pursued the strategy and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon advocated for the approach to be adopted by the whole of the UK, the central British government pursued a different mitigation strategy that applied to England, with commentators noting that this combined with an open Anglo-Scottish border could undermine Scotland's attempts at elimination.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Singapore recorded its first COVID-19 case on 23 January 2020. With that, many Singaporeans had purchased and worn masks when not at home; practiced social distancing and on 7 February 2020, Singapore raised the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level from Yellow to Orange in response to additional local cases of uncertain origin. On 3 April 2020 a stringent set of preventive measures collectively called the "circuit breaker lockdown" was announced. Stay-at-home order and "cordon sanitaire" were implemented as a preventive measure by the Government of Singapore in response on 7 April 2020. The measures were brought into legal effect by the Minister for Health with the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) (Control Order) Regulations 2020, published on 7 April 2020.


title: Zero-COVID

text: The country introduced what was considered one of the world's largest and best-organised epidemic control programmes. The "Control Order" implemented various measures such as; mass testing the population for the virus, isolating any infected people as well as introducing contact tracing apps and strictly quarantining those they had close contact with those infected All non-essential workplaces closed, with essential workplaces remaining open. All schools transitioned to home-based learning. All food establishments were only allowed to offer take-away, drive-thru and delivery of food. Non-essential advertising at shopping centres are not allowed to be shown or advertised and only advertising from essential service offers and safe management measures such as mask wearing and social distancing are allowed.


title: Zero-COVID

text: These measures helped to prevent these lockdowns after the end of the circuit breaker lockdown measures in June 2020 with reopening being staggered in different steps all the way until April 2021. The high transmissibility of the Delta and Omicron variants challenged Singapore's Zero-COVID approach, and the country phased it out after vaccinating the majority of its population in October 2021.


title: Zero-COVID

text: The first case in South Korea was announced on 20 January 2020. On 4 February 2020, in order to help prevent spread of the disease, South Korea began denying entry to foreigners traveling from China. Various other measures have been taken: mass testing the population, isolating infected people, and trace and quarantine of those they had contact with. The rapid and extensive testing undertaken by South Korea has been judged successful in limiting the spread of the outbreak, without using drastic measures. There was no general lockdown of businesses in South Korea, with supermarkets and other retailers remaining open. However, schools, universities, cinemas, and gyms were closed soon after the outbreaks, with schools and universities having online classes.


title: Zero-COVID

text: The government is providing citizens with information in Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese on how to not become infected and how to prevent spreading the disease as part of its "K-Quarantine" measures. This includes information on cough etiquette, when and how to wear a face mask, and the importance of physical distancing and staying at home. The South Korean government has also been sending daily emergency notifications, detailing information on locations with reported infections and other status updates related to the pandemic. Infected South Koreans are required to go into isolation in government shelters. Their phones and credit card data are used to trace their prior movements and find their contacts. People who are determined to have been near the infected individual receive phone alerts with information about their prior movements.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Due to its extensive cultural and economic exchanges with mainland China, Taiwan was initially expected to be at high risk of developing a large-scale outbreak of COVID-19.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Immediately after China notified the WHO of a pneumonia cluster in Wuhan on 31 December 2019, Taiwanese officials began screening passengers arriving from Wuhan for fever and pneumonia. This screening was subsequently broadened to all passengers with respiratory symptoms who had recently visited Wuhan. Beginning in early February 2020, all passengers arriving from mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau were required to quarantine at home for 14 days after arrival in Taiwan. Mobile phone data was used to monitor compliance with quarantine requirements.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Public places such as schools, restaurants and offices in Taiwan were required to monitor body temperature of visitors and provide hand sanitizer. Mask-wearing was encouraged, and on 24 January, an export ban and price controls were placed on surgical masks and other types of personal protective equipment.


title: Zero-COVID

text: On 20 March 2020, Taiwan initiated 14-day quarantine for all international arrivals, and began converting commercial hotels into quarantine facilities. In early April, Taiwanese public health officials announced social distancing measures, and mandated mask use in public transport.


title: Zero-COVID

text: The first known case of COVID-19 in Taiwan was identified on 21 January 2020. On 31 January, approximately 3,000 passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship went ashore in Taiwan. Five days later, it was recognized that there was an outbreak on the ship. Taiwanese public health authorities used mobile phone data and other contact tracing measures to identify these passengers and their close contacts for testing and quarantine. No cases related to these passengers were identified in Taiwan.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Taiwan maintained near-zero viral prevalence throughout 2020, totaling just 56 known locally transmitted cases (out of a population of 23.6 million) through 31 December 2020.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Taiwan experienced its largest outbreak from April to August 2021, initially caused by violations of COVID-19 quarantine rules by international flight crews. On 15 May 2021, Taiwan identified more than 100 daily cases for the first time since the start of the pandemic. The outbreak was brought to an end on 25 August 2021, when Taiwan recorded no new locally transmitted cases for the first time since May 2021.


title: Zero-COVID

text: In April 2022, the government departed from Zero-COVID, launching a revised strategy — billed as the "new Taiwanese model" — that no longer focuses on total suppression, but rather shifts to mitigating the effects of the pandemic. Premier Su Tseng-chang was cited as saying the new model is not the same as "living with COVID-19", as the virus would not be allowed to spread unchecked, but active prevention of the virus' spread would be balanced with allowing people to live normal lives and a stable reopening of the economy. As of early May 2022, the government has maintained the policy amidst a wave of infections that crossed 30,000 new COVID-19 cases for the first time since the pandemic began, and that Health minister Chen Shih-chung said was on track to reach up to 100,000 new infections daily. On 7 May 2022, Taiwan reported 46,377 new cases, overtaking the United States as the highest daily new case region.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Due to its fragile healthcare system, East Timor would have been deeply affected by a widespread COVID-19 outbreak. The East Timor government implemented a strategy to keep the virus out by closing the border with Indonesia, and only allowing entry of citizens by repatriation flights. This strategy was effective initially. During 2020, the country reported 44 infections and zero fatalities, and the country was able to function normally, with no lockdowns and largely maskless crowds celebrating Christmas in 2020. However, new variants caused a spike beginning in March 2021, prompting mask mandates and some restrictions on business operations. Timorese authorities were able to contain this outbreak by November 2021, and on 30 November, the state of emergency ended. Business restrictions, as well as the outdoor mask mandate, were lifted. The indoor mask mandate was lifted on 7 January 2022, and as of March 2022, the country maintained an elimination strategy to keep out all infections.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Tonga has followed a Zero-COVID policy, but more than a year and a half into the pandemic, on 29 October 2021, the first COVID-19 case—a seasonal worker who returned from New Zealand and entered quarantine—was confirmed. The country's COVID-19 policy caused complications with international aid following the Hunga Tonga volcano eruption in 2022. To keep the country virus-free, an Australian aid flight had to return to base after detecting a case midflight, while HMAS Adelaide (L01) made plans to stay at sea after 23 members of her crew tested positive for COVID-19.


title: Zero-COVID

text: The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Vietnam on 23 January 2020, when two Chinese people in Ho Chi Minh City tested positive for the virus. In response the government issued a diagnostic and management guidelines for COVID-19, providing instructions on contact tracing and 14-day isolation. Health authorities began monitoring body temperatures at border gates and started detection and contact tracing, with orders for the mandatory isolation of infected people and anyone they had come into contact with.


title: Zero-COVID

text: In 2020, Vietnam was cited by global media as having one of the best-organized epidemic control programs in the world, along the lines of other highlights such as Taiwan and South Korea. This success has been attributed to several factors, including a well-developed public health system, a decisive central government, and a proactive containment strategy based on comprehensive testing, tracing, and quarantining. However, instead of relying on medicine and technology, the Vietnamese state security apparatus has adopted an widespread of public surveillance system along with a public well-respected military force.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Starting in April 2021, Vietnam experienced its largest outbreak to date, with over 1.2 million infections recorded by November. This led to two of its largest cities (Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi) and around a third of the country's population coming under some form of lockdown by late July. A degree of complacency after successes in previous outbreaks, and infections originating from foreign workers were all considered to have contributed to the outbreak. In response, government-mandated quarantine for foreign arrivals and close contacts to confirmed cases was extended to 21 days, and accompanying safety measures also tightened up.


title: Zero-COVID

text: In September 2021, Vietnam abandoned its zero-COVID strategy, after a three-month lockdown of Ho Chi Minh city caused major economic disruption in the city and failed to contain the outbreak. The country shifted to a phased reopening and more flexible approach while expanding its vaccination programme.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Proponents of the zero-COVID strategy argue that successful execution reduces the number of nationwide lockdowns needed, that healthcare and economic costs are lower, that it is less costly to society, that it reduces dependence on pharmaceutical interventions such as vaccines, and that it increases quality of life and life expectancy due to fewer citizens contracting COVID-19.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Chinese virologist Guan Yi has criticised the Chinese government's zero COVID measures, telling Phoenix Hong Kong Channel that, if the government persists with the policy for a handful of cases, the economy will suffer. Guan has advocated for increased vaccination and research into the efficacy of homegrown vaccines against new variants.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Other opponents of the zero-COVID strategy argue that the strategy causes the economy to suffer, that before vaccinations were common, elimination strategies lowered herd immunity, that zero-COVID is not sustainable, and that newer variants such as the Omicron variant are so transmissible that the zero-COVID strategy is no longer feasible.


title: Zero-COVID

text: In May 2022, World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus commented that the zero-COVID strategy is no longer considered sustainable based on "the behavior of the virus now" and future trends. The comment was suppressed on the Chinese Internet. "The Lancet", mostly supportive of a zero-COVID strategy before the appearance of less severe but more transmissible variants, also published a news article detailing the problems in China's implementation.


title: Zero-COVID

text: Some countries which pursued zero-COVID, such as Vietnam, Singapore, and Australia, later decided to discontinue it, citing increased vaccination rates and more transmissible variants.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: The Eurocopter EC145 (now Airbus Helicopters H145) is a twin-engine light utility helicopter developed and manufactured by Airbus Helicopters. Originally designated as the "BK 117", the H145 is based upon the MBB/Kawasaki BK 117 C1, which became a part of the combined Eurocopter line-up in 1992 with the merger of Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm's helicopter division of Daimler-Benz into Eurocopter. The helicopter was earlier named EC145; an updated version, EC145 T2, was renamed H145 in 2015.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: The H145 is a twin-engine aircraft and can carry up to nine passengers along with two crew, depending on customer configuration. The helicopter is marketed for passenger transport, corporate transport, emergency medical services (EMS), search and rescue, parapublic and utility roles.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: Military variants of the helicopter have also been produced under various designations, such as H145M or UH-72, and have been used for training, logistics, medical evacuation, reconnaissance, light attack, and troop-transport operations.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: The EC145 was a joint development between Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm, subsequently Eurocopter and Kawasaki Heavy Industries on the basis of their successful prior jointly produced BK 117 C1. Rather than pursuing an entirely clean sheet design, the forward cockpit and modern avionics of Eurocopter's EC 135 were adopted in combination with the proven BK 117's rear section; Flight International described the new helicopter, originally designed as BK 117 C2, as being "90% a combination of these two aircraft [The EC135 and BK 117 C1]". However, there were significant areas of redesign, advantages held by the EC145 over its predecessor include possessing a greater range and payload capacity, a considerably increased and uninterrupted cabin area, reduced vibration and noise emissions, and measures to simplify maintenance and minimise operational costs. The noise signature of the EC145 is reportedly 60% lower than that of the BK 117 C1.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: The new model was type-certificated as the BK 117 C2; in December 1997, it was selected by the French Defense and Civil Guard for air rescue mission, 31 EC145s were ordered to replace their fleet of ageing Aérospatiale Alouette III in a deal costing $170 million. The first EC145 completed its maiden flight at Donauwörth, Germany, on 12 June 1999; Eurocopter conducted a major publicity event for the emerging type at the US Helicopter Association International Show in February 2000. Safety certification of the EC145 was awarded by the German "Luftfahrt-Bundesamt" and Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau in December 2000; and by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in January 2002.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: Eurocopter and Kawasaki have an agreement to independently manufacture and market the rotorcraft, while working collaboratively on development and upgrades. Eurocopter has a 60% production workshare, which includes the main and tail rotors, intermediate and tail gearboxes, control systems, cockpit and tail structure, and landing gear; Kawasaki has a 40% workshare, comprising the fuselage structure, main transmission, electrical and fuel systems. Kawasaki uses the designation BK 117 C2 for the type and sells/produces the aircraft in the Asian market; Eurocopter sells the type globally under the EC145 designation. In November 2004, with the termination of production of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' MH2000, the BK 117 C2 became the only civil helicopter in production in Japan. In August 2010, it was announced that the partnership between Eurocopter and Kawasaki on the development and production of the EC145 had been extended until at least 2025.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: In 2011, Eurocopter launched an upgraded EC145 model, designated "EC145 T2", unveiling the new type at Heli Expo 2011. The EC145 T2 is designed to significantly increase the aircraft's performance, featuring new Arriel 2E turboshaft engines, dual-digital Full Authority Digital Engine Controls (FADEC), Eurocopter's Fenestron shrouded tail rotor design, and upgraded tail and main rotor gear boxes. Considerable differences and improvements were introduced to the cockpit and aircraft subsystems, including the adoption of increasingly digital avionics and a fully modular approach to these systems; amongst the biggest changes is a sophisticated 4-axis autopilot. In April 2014, airworthiness certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency for the EC145 T2 was received, FAA certification followed in October 2014.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: The primary manufacturing facility for the EC145 is located at Donauwörth in Germany, which is Eurocopter's second-largest site after Marignane in France. In 2014, Airbus Helicopters announced that 50 EC145 T2s would be manufactured in 2015; the production is expected to eventually rise to 70 helicopters per year.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: Since 2011, Eurocopter has been developing an optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) variant of the EC145. Test flights of the "EC145 OPV", including unmanned flights, began in 2013. The system, designed to plug into the EC145's existing avionics, is capable of autonomous operation or alternatively being controlled by human operators either via the cockpit or from a ground control station. The technology, which is reported to be compatible with a number of Eurocopter's range of helicopters, is intended for both civil and military applications. In an emergency situation, such as systems failure, the EC145 OPV is programmed to enter into an automated hover-to-land procedure to safely land the aircraft. In March 2015, Airbus Helicopter's Chief Technical Officer Jean-Brice Dumont stated that there were no firm plans for the EC145 OPV to proceed to production, but investment in the project was continuing.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: In July 2014, Airbus Helicopter launched the "EC145e", a lightened and lower cost version of the standard EC145, achieved by the removal of some avionics for autopilot and single-pilot IFR functions. Intended as a basic model for tasks such as aerial firefighting and utility work, it has been also viewed as a replacement for aging MBB Bo 105 rotorcraft. In April 2015, the EASA issued its certification for the EC145e. In 2015, Metro Aviation entered into an arrangement with Airbus Helicopters to offer various mission-specific customisations for the EC145e and operate as a reseller for the variant. In 2015, the EC145 was rebranded as the "H145" by Airbus Helicopters.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: In March 2019, Airbus Helicopters announced that it was developing, in cooperation with Japanese manufacturer Kawasaki, an upgraded model of the H145. Chiefly amongst its new features were a new bearingless five-bladed main rotor that incorporates the Blue Edge rotor blade, the testing of which had commenced in April 2018. Furthermore, such changes are able to be retrofitted to existing H145s. The upgrade reportedly increases payload capacity by and will be able to be retrofitted to existing H145s. EASA certification is expected in the first quarter of 2020.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: The EC145 features a larger cabin space than the older BK 117 C1 helicopter with internal space increased by 46 cm (18 in) in length and 13 cm (5 in) in width, increasing cabin volume by to . Other improvements over the BK 117 include an increased maximum take-off weight and greater range, achieved partially by the adoption of composite rotor blades, which were derived from the smaller EC135. The EC145 has a hingeless rotor system with a monolithic titanium hub; the helicopter was originally powered by a pair of Turboméca Arriel 1E2 turboshaft engines, later aircraft are powered by the upgraded Turboméca Arriel 2E engine. A key feature of the rotorcraft is the variable rotorspeed and torque matching system (VARTOMS), derived from the BK 117, which Eurocopter has attributed as making the EC145 "the quietest helicopter in its class".


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: The EC145 is fitted with an all-glass cockpit, consists of a Thales Avionics MEGHAS Flight Control Display System with active matrix liquid crystal displays (LCDs); it can be piloted by either one or two pilots. A number of systems are independently redundant, including the autopilot system, hydraulic boost, transmission lubrication, and some of the onboard sensors. The EC145 T2 features additional and newer avionics systems, such as a full 4-axis autopilot and dual-channel Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC); three large LCD primary displays were also introduced to control these systems. The type is fully capable of Category A operations; in November 2008, an EC145 performed the first medical transport flights under instrument flight rules (IFR) in Europe; the type is able to fly entirely under GPS navigation from takeoff to final approach when required. The EC145 is also the first civil helicopter to be fitted with night vision-compatible cockpit instrumentation and lighting straight off the production line.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: Typical cabin arrangements allows for eight passengers in a club seating configuration, or nine passengers in a high density seating configuration, passenger seating is designed for quick rearrangement based upon current demands. The cabin can be accessed either through sliding doors in either side of the aircraft or via large clamshell doors at the rear of the cabin; in combination with the high mounted tail boom, the clamshell doors are designed to provide safe clearance for loading and unloading activities even while the rotors are turning. In an EMS/casualty evacuation arrangement, the EC145 can carry up to two stretchered patients with three accompanying medical staff. The helicopter can be fitted with emergency floats, rescue hoist, search light, load hook and specialist equipment for other operational requirements.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: A VIP variant the Stylence was launched in 2008 for corporate and private helicopter operators which has various aesthetic and technology changes from the baseline model to provide a higher level of passenger comfort. The Stylence features a luxury interior with a variety of seating configurations, leather seats, carbon fibre inserts, carpet, optional sliding wall in rear of the cabin and optional console with cold box. In 2011, Eurocopter launched the


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: high-end Mercedes-Benz Style VIP variant developed in association with the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Division. The Mercedes-Benz Style features several seating configurations for between four and eight passengers with the option of up to three multipurpose cabinets via switchable rail-mountings, three trim and upholstery levels with wooden panelling, advanced in-flight entertainment system and adjustable ambient lighting. The seats can be removed to create space for luggage with anchoring options on the floor and walls. The Mercedes-Benz Style also features external changes including a reshaped forward section and modified landing skids. In 2017, Airbus Helicopters launched the Airbus Corporate Helicopters (ACH) brand for corporate variants with two product lines for the H145 assigned the marketing name ACH145: the ACH145 Line, formerly the Stylence, and the ACH145 Editions product line, which retained the Mercedes-Benz Style name. The EC145e, a utility variant, has a deliberately standardised interior for the purpose of minimising overall weight.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: The French "Sécurité Civile" (Civil Guard), French "Gendarmerie" and the "Landespolizei" (State Police) of Hesse, Germany became the first operators of the EC145 upon receipt of the initial deliveries in April 2002. The "Sécurité Civile" procured the type as a replacement for its aging Aérospatiale Alouette III fleet, winning out against the Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin. In November 2006, the "Sécurité Civile" were planning to make greater use of the EC145's IFR capabilities for operations within bad weather and at night time. In 2008, the "Gendarmerie" reportedly stated that the EC145 has a per aircraft availability rate of roughly 90 percent. Out of a total of 32 EC145s delivered to the "Sécurité Civile", three had been lost in accidents by June 2009.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: In October 2010, an agreement to establish a joint venture between Eurocopter and Kazakhstan Engineering, "Eurocopter Kazakhstan Engineering", was formally signed; the joint venture created the only EC145 manufacturer in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which possesses exclusive rights to supply the type to Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, and Azerbaijan. In November 2011, Kazakhstan took delivery of the first of an initial batch of six EC145 ordered. In September 2012, "Eurocopter Kazakhstan" received its first EC145 assembly kits at its newly established facility in Astana; up to 10 EC145s per year are to be built at the facility. By November 2015, a total of 20 rotorcraft had been produced at the Kazakhstan facility, 14 for the Ministry of Emergencies of Kazakhstan and 6 for the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: In April 2012, Eurocopter announced that the 500th EC145 had been delivered. On 31 July 2014, the first EC145 T2, an updated variant, was delivered to its launch customer, DRF Luftrettung, who have ordered a total of 20 such helicopters for emergency medical service operations.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: In April 2015, Airbus Group Australia Pacific delivered its first H145, previously designated as the EC145 T2. In June 2015, it was announced that Saudi Arabia intended to purchase 23 H145s worth $500 million. In November 2015, it was reported that the H145 had attained an average availability rate of 94%.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: On 25 September 2019 an Airbus H145 landed on the summit of Aconcagua, highest mountain in Southern Hemisphere at 6962 metres (22,840 ft), crewed by Airbus experimental test pilot Alexander Neuhaus and flight test engineer Antoine van Gent. This is a record for a twin-engined helicopter.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: In 2006, the "UH-145", a military variant of the EC145, was selected for the United States Army's Light Utility Helicopter Program, beating three other helicopters. The deal, valued at $3 billion, involved the supply and servicing of 345 helicopters, with options for additional aircraft. The variant was designated UH-72 Lakota by the US Department of Defense; the first UH-72A was delivered to the US Army in December 2006. In August 2007, the FAA authorised the commencement of production of both UH-72A and civil EC145 rotorcraft at "American Eurocopter"'s facility in Columbus, Mississippi.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: In July 2013, Germany purchased 15 EC145s for the German Army to be used for special operations (KSK) designated "EC645 T2". The EC645 T2 is armed with weapon mounts, fitted with electronic countermeasures system, ballistic protection, electro-optical system, fast rope system, cargo hooks and hoists. In October 2014, Thailand placed an order for 5 EC645 T2s for the Royal Thai Navy. On 27 November 2014, the maiden flight of the EC645 T2 was performed at Donauwörth, Germany. On 15 May 2015, the "H145M", previously designated as EC645 T2, received EASA airworthiness certification. The first two H145Ms were received by Germany and assigned to the Air Force in December 2015.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: In December 2016, Serbia placed an order for 9 H145Ms with 6 for the Serbian Air Force and Air Defence, four of the six to be equipped with the HForce weapon system, and 3 for the Police of Serbia. In November 2018, Serbia changed the distribution of the H145Ms; the Police to receive an additional H145M and the Serbian Air Force and Air Defence to receive one less H145M with three equipped with HForce. In November 2017, Airbus completed the first test fire of the HForce modular weapon system. HForce will enable the H145M hardpoints to be armed with the M3P .50-caliber machine gun, M621 20mm automatic cannon and FZ231 70mm rocket launcher and will equip the H145M with a Wescam MX-15 electro-optical targeting system and Scorpion helmet mounted sight display. In December 2017, Airbus successfully launched FZ275 70mm semi-active laser guided rockets.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: In June 2018, an order was placed for 20 H145Ms by Hungary for the Hungarian Air Force equipped with HForce weapon system. All delivered by the end of 2021. First live firing exercise was held in September of 2021 using 20 mm cannon pods.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: In July 2018, an order was placed by Luxembourg for 2 H145Ms for the Luxembourg Army that will be dual role for use by the Luxembourg Police.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: In August 2021, the German Air Force deployed two H145Ms to Hamid Karzai International Airport to assist in evacuation operations in the aftermath of the fall of Kabul.


title: Eurocopter EC145

text: In 2019, more than 1300 EC145s were in service around the world which in 2012 was reported as 34 countries and around 100 customers.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: The Government Pension Fund of Norway () comprises two entirely separate sovereign wealth funds owned by the government of Norway.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: The Government Pension Fund Global, also known as the Oil Fund, was established in 1990 to invest the surplus revenues of the Norwegian petroleum sector. It has over US$1.19 trillion in assets, and holds 1.4% of all of the world’s listed companies, making it among the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds. In December 2021, it was worth about $250,000 per Norwegian citizen. It also holds portfolios of real estate and fixed-income investments. Many companies are excluded by the fund on ethical grounds.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: The Government Pension Fund Norway is smaller and was established in 1967 as a type of national insurance fund. It is managed separately from the Oil Fund and is limited to domestic and Scandinavian investments and is therefore a key stock holder in many large Norwegian companies, predominantly via the Oslo Stock Exchange.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: The Government Pension Fund Global (, SPU) is a fund into which the surplus wealth produced by Norwegian petroleum income is deposited. Its name changed in January 2006 from the Petroleum Fund of Norway. The fund is commonly referred to as the Oil Fund ().


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: The purpose of the fund is to invest parts of the large surplus generated by the Norwegian petroleum sector, mainly from taxes of companies but also payment for licenses to explore for oil as well as the State's Direct Financial Interest and dividends from the partly state-owned Equinor. Current revenue from the petroleum sector is estimated to be at its peak period and to decline in the future decades. The Petroleum Fund was established in 1990 after a decision by the country's legislature to counter the effects of the forthcoming decline in income and to smooth out the disruptive effects of highly fluctuating oil prices.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: As its name suggests, the Government Pension Fund Global is invested in international financial markets, so the risk is independent from the Norwegian economy. Over 9,123 companies in 73 countries are invested in the fund (2021). On 25 October 2019, the fund's value reached 10,000 billion Kroner, according to its official website.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: Norway has experienced economic surpluses since the development of its hydrocarbon resources in the 70s. This reality, coupled with the desire to mitigate volatility stemming from fluctuating oil prices, motivated the creation of Norway's Oil Fund, now the Government Pension Fund-Global (GPF-G). The instability of oil prices has been of constant concern for oil-dependent countries since the start of the oil boom, but especially so in the decades following the first oil shocks in the 1970s. As the real GDP of oil-exporting states is linked with the price of oil, it has been a goal of these exporters to stabilize oil consumption patterns, and a host of these exporting states singled out sovereign wealth funds as an effective policy tool for achieving this outcome. The adoption of the GPF-G has been in line global economic trends, especially investment patterns. International investment has increased at a significantly higher pace than either global GDP or global trade of goods and services, increasing by 175% over a period at which the former two metrics increased by 53% and 93% respectively.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: The domestic fund, the Government Pension Fund Norway, is managed by Folketrygdfondet. The global investment fund is managed by Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), part of the Norwegian Central Bank on the behalf of the Ministry of Finance. It is the largest pension fund in Europe and larger than the California public-employees pension fund (CalPERS), one of the largest in the United States.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: As of June 2011, it was the largest pension fund in the world, but it is not a pension fund in the conventional sense, as it derives its financial backing from oil profits, not pension contributions. In September 2017, the fund exceeded US$1 trillion in value for the first time, a thirteen-fold increase since 2002. With a population of 5.2 million people, the fund was worth $192,307 per Norwegian citizen. Of the assets, 65% were equities (accounting for 1.3% of global equity markets), and the rest were property and fixed-income investments. Norway can withdraw up to 3% of the fund's value each year. The first withdrawal in its history was made in 2016. In a parliamentary white paper in April 2011, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance forecast that the fund would reach $1 trillion by the end of 2019. According to the forecast, a worst-case scenario for the fund value in 2030 was forecast at $455 billion, and a best case scenario at $3.3 trillion. With 2.33 percent of European stocks, it is the largest stock owner in Europe.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: In 1998, the fund was allowed to invest up to 40 percent of its portfolio in the international stock market. In June 2009, the ministry decided to raise the stock portion to 60 percent. In May 2014, the Central Bank governor proposed raising the rate to 70 percent. The Norwegian government planned that up to 5 percent of the fund should be invested in real estate, beginning in 2010. A specific policy for the real estate investments was suggested in a report the Swiss Partners Group wrote for the Norwegian Ministry of Finance.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: Norway's sovereign wealth fund is taking steps to become more active in company governance. In the second quarter of 2013, the sovereign fund voted in 6,078 general meetings as well as 239 shareholder proposals on environmental and social issues. Norway's Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) has the potential to influence the corporate governance market in Europe, and possibly China as well, greatly. It has also started to become active in pushing for lower executive pay.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: The rise of globalization as the predominant political-economic system has had several key effects on states, especially in regard to interdependence and sovereignty. The erosion of fully independent socioeconomic structures has provoked new questions regarding the role of the state and its ability to project its sovereignty on a set of global economic systems that seem largely out of reach both legally and pragmatically for most states. Sovereign wealth funds are an inherently nationalist type of investment vehicle, and there exists potential for their use as a mitigating force to the supranational forces of globalization. The issue with this is that such practices may lead to a general increase in protectionism as nations attempt to wrestle back control of their economies from external forces, an outcome that most economic intergovernmental organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund, would like to see avoided. Some commentators, like Professor Gordon L. Clark of the University of Oxford, express concerns regarding non-profit considerations motivating the practices of the GPF-G, especially in regards to its ethical concerns and how these considerations may be used as a means of exerting Norwegian standards on foreign firms. On the other hand, the OECD has stated that sovereign wealth funds have had a stabilizing influence on international markets due to their ability to provide capital during times of domestic investor pessimism. The OECD has taken steps to minimize the possibilities of economic protectionism by instituting the Freedom of Investment project, where participating states agree upon guiding sets of principles that seek to boost transparency and transnational investment, while also advising states on how to best handle issues of foreign investment in the sphere of national security.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: As a result of the large size of the fund relative to the low number of people living in Norway (5.2 million people in 2017), the "Oil Fund" has become a hot political issue, dominated by three main issues:


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: There are diverse concerns and predicted effects of sovereign wealth funds on international financial markets and the global economy as a whole, with experts expressing strong fears regarding destabilization and protectionism stemming from sovereign wealth funds. The destabilization argument, often cited by Roland Beck of the European Central Bank, is that non-market investment motives may lead sovereign wealth funds managers to make decisions that go against market logic, in turn causing an unexpected and potentially disastrous ripple effect. The protectionist argument, mentioned above in relation to sovereignty and sovereign wealth funds, is essentially a fear that sovereign wealth funds could be used in a non-market, protectionist manner where competing states would perpetuate ever-increasing anti-global free trade movements. However, despite these fears, there is also strong evidence to suggest that sovereign wealth funds are unlikely to gain board of directors seats in their acquisitions. Additionally, Norway’s GPF-G is especially unlikely to gain any board-of-directors seats in a company headquartered in an OECD country. Furthermore, some experts directly contradict fears regarding the destabilizing effect of sovereign wealth funds, arguing that these funds increase the stability of global finance due to the fact that they serve to increase the variety of owners of risky financial vehicles, minimizing exposure to shocks in any one particular industry, while also simultaneously limiting the absolute loss any actor can suffer in a particular global economic sector.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: Part of the investment policy debate is related to the discovery of several cases of investment by The Petroleum Fund in very controversial companies, involved in businesses such as arms production, tobacco and fossil fuels. The Petroleum Fund’s Advisory Council on Ethics was established 19 November 2004 by royal decree. Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance issued a new regulation on the management of the Government Petroleum Fund, which also includes ethical guidelines.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: According to its ethical guidelines, the Norwegian pension fund cannot invest money in companies that directly or indirectly contribute to killing, torture, deprivation of freedom or other violations of human rights in conflict situations or wars. Contrary to popular belief, the fund is allowed to invest in a number of arms-producing companies, as only some kind of weapons, such as nuclear arms, are banned by the ethical guidelines as investment objects.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: To support the ethical screening process, the Council on Ethics works with RepRisk ESG Business Intelligence, a global research firm and provider of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk data. RepRisk monitors the companies in the Norwegian Pension Fund’s portfolio for issues such as severe human rights violations, particularly regarding child labor, forced labour, and violations of individual rights in conflict areas as well as gross environmental degradation and corruption. RepRisk has been working with the Council on Ethics since 2009 and in 2014, re-won the tender for ESG data provision for 2014-2017.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: An investigation by the Norwegian business newspaper in February 2012 showed that Norway has invested more than $2 billion in 15 technology companies producing technology that can and has been used for filtering, wiretapping, or surveillance of communication in various countries, among them Iran, Syria, and Burma. Although surveillance tech is not the primary activity of all the 15 companies, they have all had or still have some kind of connection to such technology. The Ministry of Finance in Norway stated that it would not withdraw investing in these companies or discuss an eventual exclusion of surveillance industry companies from its investments.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: On 19 January 2010 the Ministry of Finance announced that 17 tobacco companies had been excluded from the fund. The total divestment from these companies was $2 billion (NOK 14.2 billion), making it the largest divestment caused by ethical recommendations in the history of the fund.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: In March 2014, as the result of both domestic and international pressure, the parliament appointed a panel to investigate whether the fund should divest its coal assets in line with its ethical investment mandate. The panel released its recommendations in December 2014, recommending the fund follow a strategy of corporate engagement rather than divestment. The parliament was set to make its decision early in 2015. In the event, the fund will be required to divest from companies that derive at least 30℅ of their business from coal.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: In 2014, the fund divested from 53 coal companies around the world, including 16 companies in the US (among them Peabody Energy, Arch Coal, and Alpha Natural Resources), 13 companies in India (including Coal India) and 3 companies in China. As a result, the total value of the fund’s coal holdings fell by 5% to $9.7 billion. In 2014, the fund also sold its stakes in 59 out of 90 oil and gas companies in which it holds shares by $30 billion.


title: Government Pension Fund of Norway

text: On 8 March 2019, the Ministry of Finance recommended divestiture from its oil and gas exploration and production holdings. This came after the August 2017 Lofoten Declaration which demanded leadership in a global fossil fuel phase-out from the countries that can most afford to act, such as Norway.