The mandate means Ardern, 40, could form the first single-party government in decades, and face the challenge of delivering on the progressive transformation she promised but failed to deliver in her first term

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand had forecast a quarterly and annual GDP decline of 14% in its August statement

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government has been criticised by political opponents and health experts for being too slow to go into lockdown and in rolling out testing to know how far the virus had spread

Opposition parties had been requesting a delay after a virus outbreak in Auckland last week prompted the government to put the city into a two-week lockdown and halted election campaigning

Coronavirus vaccine news: Moderna is planning to price the COVID vaccine at $50-60 (Rs 3,700-Rs 4,500) for the entire course. This would mean that per dose would be priced at $25-30 (Rs 1,800-Rs 2,300)

New Zealand has been able to eliminate the fast-spreading coronavirus from its soil. How did the country of 4.8 million people achieve this feat? What was the country's elimination strategy? Is it safe from COVID-19 forever? Much of the credit goes to its 39 year old Prime minister Jacinda Ardern who acted aggressively, swiftly and very early. The citizens have also cooperated. Watch the video for more.Also Read: Antibody therapies to cure coronavirus now under human trial phase

New Zealand has tested almost 40,000 people in the past 17 days and no one has been in a hospital with Covid-19 for 12 days, Ardern said at a news conference

International travel, however, would not be possible as borders will remain closed except for returning New Zealanders

Jacinda Ardern on Monday announced the country would stay in lockdown for another week before slightly easing some work restrictions to help restart the economy

Coronavirus pandemic: Package was bigger as a proportion of GDP than those announced by countries like Australia and Singapore

COVID-19 latest: Globally, more than 138,000 people have been infected and over 5,000 have died due to the deadly coronavirus

Forbes most powerful women list: Other Indian women who made it to the list are Roshni Nadar Malhotra, who has been placed on the 54th spot and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw at 65th spot

In the US, multiple cities, including San Francisco and Seattle, have banned single-use plastic. To dissuade people from using plastic, cities like Washington DC and Boston have imposed taxes on plastic bags

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern strongly condemned the Pulwama and the Christchurch terror attacks as they met here and extended support to each other to fight terrorism.

PM Modi will be the fourth speaker at the Summit, after UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and President of Marshall Islands Hilda Heine

PM Modi will take part in the UNSG's Summit on Climate Change and Leaders' Dialogue on 'Strategic Responses to Terrorist and Violent Extremist Narratives' on Monday.