Nations that succeed in tackling their infection rates have many different challenges but one common enemy: the coronavirus.

After nearly five weeks of level 4 lockdown, New Zealand boasts one of the lowest rates of confirmed cases per 100,000 people in the world.

The transmission rate - which shows the number of times each person with the virus passes it on to another - is less than 0.48 per cent. The overseas average is about 2 to 2.5. As of Sunday, New Zealand had 1470 probable or confirmed cases, 1142 of who had recovered, while 18 people had died.

So which other places are beating the odds? We looked at five other nations that acted early to fight against the pandemic.

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TAIWAN

Chiang Ying-ying In Taiwan, phone tracking was also used to ensure travellers in mandatory 14-day quarantine were sticking to their isolation conditions.

Despite their proximity to the source, Taiwan's 24 million residents have managed to avoid the kind of lockdowns New Zealanders have faced.

By Friday morning, the island known for staring down Beijing had only recorded six coronavirus deaths and 427 confirmed cases.

Taiwan's early success is the culmination of swift decision-making, centralised planning, and good technology.

As reports emerged in January of the seriousness of a new respiratory illness in mainland China – which sits about 130-kilometres away – Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen established a Central Epidemic Command Centre to oversee travel restrictions and quarantine protocols.

The government swiftly took over the production and distribution of medical-grade masks after monitoring commodity spikes to avoid panic buying.

Phone tracking was also used to ensure travellers in mandatory 14-day quarantine were sticking to their isolation conditions.

If anyone strayed too far from home, they would receive a call or text to trace their location. In some cases, the police would also come knocking, with the power to fine residents up to NT$1million (NZ$55,200) for breaching the rules.

This abundance of caution came from previous experience.

As President Tsai wrote in Time last month: "The painful lessons of the 2003 SARS outbreak, which left Taiwan scarred with the loss of dozens of lives, put our government and people on high alert early on."

That said, the island hasn't done as much testing as other Asian nations and there are some breaches in the defences – including a cluster of infected sailors who recently returned from a goodwill mission to the Pacific Island nation of Palau.

GERMANY

AP Chancellor Angela Merkel, a scientist before she entered politics, has communicated the consequences of ignoring health advice with effective rigour.

Almost three months after its first recorded case of Covid-19, Germany has emerged as a model of success in a continent largely devastated by the global pandemic.

By Friday afternoon (NZT), the country had recorded 5575 deaths, compared to 21,856 in France, 25,549 in Italy and 22,157 in Spain.

So how exactly did a country of 83m people do so well when the virus overwhelmed its neighbours?

Like many European nations, Germany imposed lockdowns in March, which helped contain the spread of the virus (although some of those restrictions have been dialled back, with some shops reopened and students gradually returning to classrooms).

Chancellor Angela Merkel, a scientist before she entered politics, has communicated the consequences of ignoring health advice with effective rigour.

JOHANNES SIMON/GETTY IMAGES Germany's famous Oktoberfest beer festival has been cancelled for 2020. Pictured: the 2019 event.

But much of the country's success comes down to large-scale testing, says Monash University infectious disease expert Professor Allen Cheng.

"The more you test, the more you pick up mild cases.

This provides you with an opportunity to follow up those cases to make sure the virus is not being passed on," he says.

According to Worldometers' coronavirus tracking system, Germany has so far conducted more than 2 million tests, or the equivalent of 24,738 tests per million people.

By comparison, France, with a population of about 70 million, has conducted 463,662 tests or the equivalent of 7103 per million people.

SOUTH AFRICA

Themba Hadebe South Africa was working towards testing 30,000 people every day by the end of this month, with the aim of geographically mapping how the virus spreads.

In a nation already in recession – with an unemployment rate of 30 per cent – coronavirus presents an insidious choice for many South Africans lucky enough to have a job: adopt social distancing and risk hunger, or keep working and risk infection.

Many are choosing the latter.

But while authorities know they can't necessarily dodge the impact of the virus, they have attempted to minimise the damage with aggressive testing, drawing on the experience of medical professionals and NGOs who helped fight another infectious disease that ravaged the nation: HIV.

As The Washington Post reported last week, more than 28,000 healthcare workers have been doorknocking and testing about 2 million citizens.

Residents' travel histories have been recorded along with their temperatures, while pop-up clinics have been set up in townships to assess those who can't afford a car or public transport.

According to the National Health Laboratory Service, South Africa was working towards testing 30,000 people every day by the end of this month, with the aim of geographically mapping how the virus spreads.

It's an ambitious effort to protect its 57-million strong population – but one that observers hope might buy the country some time as it works out how to soften the economic impact.

"The pandemic requires an economic response that is equal to the scale of disruption it is causing," South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa said last week.

"Millions of South Africans in the informal economy and without employment are struggling to survive."

SOUTH KOREA

Kim Do-hoon Shaped by its 2015 battle againsts MERS, South Korea rolled out quarantine and screening measures as January 3.

South Korea's first confirmed case of Covid-19 emerged on the same day as the United States reported one.

Shaped by its 2015 battle against another type of coronavirus – the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, otherwise known as MERS – South Korea rolled out quarantine and screening measures that were put in place for Wuhan arrivals as early as January 3, and started early on an ambitious and accessible testing regime.

By March 8, 189,273 South Koreans had been tested, compared to only 1707 in the US. (America has since caught up, testing well over 3 million citizens by April 20.)

An outbreak in the huge congregation of the Shincheonji church pushed the number of cases over 100 by February 20, promoting an escalation of the government's detailed personal data tracking.

University of Western Australia expert George Milne, whose daughter Sophie works at a private school in South Korea, said the country also had another unique advantage: compliance.

CHUNG SUNG-JUN/GETTY IMAGES South Korea's first confirmed case of Covid-19 emerged on the same day as the United States reported one.

"The government makes recommendations and people follow them," Milne says.

"People want to do the right thing for the population as a whole, and the government is very organised. Sophie gets a few text messages every day telling her if there's any clusters near her, or reminding her to wear a face mask."

As of Friday, 240 people had died in South Korea from Covid-19, and 10,702 cases had been recorded.

The spread has slowed significantly since its peak in February 29 when 909 new cases were reported, many of them traced to an outbreak in the huge congregation of the Shincheonji Church.

AUSTRALIA

Cameron Spencer Three weeks after it went into lockdown, Australia's infection and death rates have been curbed.

Australia has cause for cautious optimism.

Three weeks after it went into a less stringent lockdown than New Zealand, the nation's infection and death rates have been curbed.

Daily infection rates are now hovering about or below 10 and there have been days, although experts have warned the country's hospitalisation rates are five times worse than in New Zealand.

Some have put Australia's success down to a more sophisticated contact tracing system at the start of the pandemic.

As of Sunday, Australia had just over 6700 confirmed cases and 81 deaths.

JAMES MORGAN/GETTY Talk of a trans-Tasman bubble is rampant in both countries.

As Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday: "We're ahead of where we thought we would be – I think that's very pleasing."

The possibility that Australia and New Zealand may both become success stories has in recent days stirred talk of a trans-Tasman bubble.