Leading US doctors have detailed their moves to New Zealand to avoid the COVID-19 pandemic, praising the "world-class" health systems in their adopted homes.
Dr Ryan Radecki is an emergency medicine doctor from the state of Oregon. He relocated his family to Christchurch when New Zealand's COVID-19 restrictions were lifted earlier this year.
Part of the reason for him moving to New Zealand and taking a job at Christchurch Hospital was so his children could re-commence their studies, which was not possible in Oregon at the time due to COVID-19 lockdowns.
In an interview with US business news channel CNBC, Dr Radecki said doctors were suffering back home in America.
"I'm happy to be working in a system that provides world-class care."
Another leading US doctor, forensic pathologist and New York Times best-selling author Dr Judy Melinek, arrived in New Zealand in July to begin a new job at Wellington Hospital.
She's been critical of her homeland and said what the US was doing to manage COVID-19 "is not working".
"I did not feel safe at work, and our at-home kids were frustrated with online high school and the prospect that they would not be able - ever again - to enjoy the close personal company of their friends," she wrote for Med-Page Today last week.
In Alaska, Dr Kris Sargent, another physician, is awaiting his departure from the US after accepting a job in the Bay of Plenty town of Katikati in January.
He told CNBC he was excited about the move and to get away from the US' "anti-science" philosophy.
New Zealand has been globally praised for its handling of the pandemic - singled out by the World Health Organization (WHO) several times, most recently on Tuesday.
"Certainly New Zealand is in an advantageous position because you have been suppressing your virus very early on and really bringing your numbers down," WHO spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris told RNZ.
Nearly 215,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the US, with more than 7.7 million recorded infections. The number of new coronavirus cases rose by 11 percent last week.
