Yes, two weeks have passed since New Zealand went to
COVID19 Alert level 4 at 23:59 on Wednesday, 25th March. At the
time, prime minister Jacinda Ardern said that the initial lockdown period would
be four weeks. Whether this continues to be the case remains to be seen – we’ll
see where we are at the end on 22nd April. In the meantime, we’re
staying indoors most of the time, with only a daily walk in our local area, and
very occasional forays to the supermarkets which remain open.
Nicola’s nephew, Jonny, and his fiancée, Sarah, were in
New Zealand touring in a campervan when the lockdown was announced. They had 48
hours to find a safe haven, or face being on a camp site in the van for the
next four weeks; and were fortunately able to make it to Wellington with a day
to spare. It’s all well and good being in a van whilst the weather is fine, as
it is at the moment, but less good when it’s pissing down outside – it can
become difficult to get rid of the dampness. They are now staying with us for
the foreseeable future. This is good for us, as it means we have four to play
bridge! We’ve also dug out the Wellington Monopoly game, and had a go at that,
as well as Scrabble, yaniv and yahtzee. At the moment the weather is fine so we’re
able to get out during the daytime…when the rain arrives, as it inevitably
will, we’ll be more reliant on these. We also have Netflix and a whole bunch of
DVDs (outdated technology, but you know, it works!) to get through.
At the moment we don’t have a clear idea of what will
happen when the four weeks is up. Will New Zealand be coronavirus free? The
aim, at the moment, seems to be elimination, not containment. If this is the
case this may allow some semblance of normal life to resume, but possibly with
the borders still closed until other countries are certified germ-free.
In the meantime, we are observing the levels of
compliance, or not, with government directives. At the weekend there was a guy
out paddleboarding. I took a picture, and hadn’t decided whether to dob him in,
but ten minutes later the police launch arrived on the scene, and presumably he
was given short shrift by them. Another noticeable feature is that the virus
cannot catch up to speeding runners or cyclists…at least, I assume that’s the information
they’ve been given, as they’re definitely not keeping 2m from pedestrians as
they whizz past. Yep, as in any given situation, some people will be dickheads
whilst the majority of people are polite and friendly. As the weather has turned cooler over the last couple of days the number of people "taking exercise" outside seems to have mysteriously diminished...
At the supermarket on my last visit, people were queuing and behaving sensibly in the aisles. However, there have been reports
of people not doing so. As for supermarkets with queues stretching out into the
carpark, this could be a problem in the rain. One supermarket has trialled
using a text message-based queuing system so you can sit in your car and wait
for your number to be called. I’m hopeful that this will have been rolled out
by the time I have to make my next big shop on Thursday.
This is the most important chart in New Zealand at the moment:
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