Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says US President Donald Trump is "patently wrong" to compare recent Covid-19 cases in New Zealand to the outbreak in the US.
Her comments come after Mr Trump referenced New Zealand during a political rally today.
"I don't want that, I don't want that," he repeated in reference to New Zealand's community outbreak.
"They were holding up names of countries, and now they are saying 'whoops'.
"Even New Zealand, you see what is going on in New Zealand. They beat it, they beat it. It was like front page, they beat it because they wanted to show me something."
"The problem is [a] big surge in New Zealand. It's terrible. We don't want that."
Ms Ardern was asked about the comments in Parliament today, where she stated the comparison is "patently wrong".
"Obviously I don’t think there’s any comparison between New Zealand’s current cluster and the tens of thousands of cases being seen in the United States," she said.
"I think anyone who is following Covid-19 globally can see New Zealand’s nine cases a day doesn’t compare to the United States' tens of thousands of cases or what is happening in most places.
"We are still one of the best performing countries in the world when it comes to Covid and are focus is on keeping it that way."
Last week, the number of cases of Covid-19 in the United States passed the 5 million mark - the total population of New Zealand - and its number of deaths is equivalent to the entire population of Hamilton.
There have now been 5.4 million cases of the virus in the US and 170,000 people have died, according to tracking data from Johns Hopkins University.
While the population of the US is far bigger – at 330,000,000 - the scale of the coronavirus crisis has resulted in President Trump’s administration has been widely criticised for its handling of the pandemic.
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