Late To The Party

As with nearly everything, New Zealand comes late to the party. But the Delta Variant has finally arrived! Unfortunately, this is not cause for celebration, and with the detection of one case of unknown origin outside MIQ, the doors have slammed shut, and we are back to lockdown – Covid Alert Level 4 with (almost) immediate effect: from midnight on Wednesday, the whole country is back to level 4 restrictions for three days initially (seven days for Auckland and Coromandel), whilst they do DNA testing and attempt to trace the source. My guess is that the days will be extended to at least 14, and possibly longer, before we’re able to relax a little. Even then, we’ll probably only relax to Alert Level 3.

Bugger.

This response has been informed by the events in New South Wales and Fiji, who are now locked down after dithering for a number of weeks as case numbers and deaths multiplied. New Zealand’s strategy is to try to nip it in the bud straight away and break the chain of transmission quickly. Whether that will be possible will be borne out by events, but as the original (Case A) has possibly been infectious since last Thursday, and travelled to Coromandel in that time, there’s an awful lot of people who may have come into contact with him. There are currently 15 locations of interest on the MOH website. As of this morning, there are now four more cases, all connected to Case A.

It’s a good job we managed to get our Rarotonga holiday in as, naturally, that door has slammed shut again. Other than that, there’s (fortunately) not much else going on at this time of year. Our burger journey will likely be curtailed after just one tasting. Toastmasters, quiz and my photography course which I’ve just started will all be cancelled, rescheduled, or done via Zoom. Nicola is still an essential worker so may still be called on to do some Driving Miss Daisy work, but most of those journeys (apart from medical appointments) have been cancelled, too. Vaccinations have been cancelled as well, so my scheduled date at the end of this month is under threat…we’ll have to see how that pans out.

Here we go again...