New Zealand enter Lockdown

Over 1 positive case

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58241619

 

*Backs away from laptop*

 

You can't argue that they haven't handled the pandemic well though.

26 deaths from a population of a little over 5m is good going.

For comparison, Barnsley alone has had over 800.

 

What a overreaction. Cannot believe some countries still think zero covid can happen and that they can beat a virus.

 

To be fair, that’s definitely the best policy when it’s a single case. Three days for most places, 7 days for where the person’s been and then it’s gone and they’re back to normal again. It’s certainly a better option than them letting it spread and before they know it they’ve got thousands of new cases a day spread throughout the entire country with no way to contain it when they only have 20% of the population vaccinated.

 

I'd say they've proved they can.

 

It's worked so far, they're sticking to their strategy.

 

What's a strategy and why can't we have one? Must just be New Zealand thing.

 

They've had something like 25 deaths if i remember right the whole time. And probably fewer restrictions than we had.

 

Let’s be honest it’s worked pretty well so far.

 

Does New Zealand have any kind of exit strategy or is their idea simply to have repeated short lockdowns until the end of time?

 

I think the aim is to ensure everyone has been vaccinated that wants it.

 

No,is the simple answer,they still haven't worked out how to relax regulations. Only 30% of the population have been vaccinated. Some politicians believe it will be 2023,some are hoping for next year. Vaccines arrive in NZ,sporadically from the US. You can leave NZ to go on holiday or business but you have to have booked a 2 week quarantine in a hotel. This slot is fixed,if you were delayed, you cannot return till another slot is booked,currently this is March/April next year. There are outsiders going to NZ,theatre groups,comedians,sports, etc,they too have 2 weeks quarantine. The travel and hospitality industry is suffering in NZ,especially the south island.
NZs say they are managing it well and coping and aiding Australia to keep their numbers down. They are waiting to see what the impact of 80-90% of the population being vaccinated is,which won't happen until the end of their summer at the earliest. The reason for the delay and tight controls is,the NZ Health service cannot cope with large numbers of people requiring hospital and ICU care. They don't have the beds or staff,so preventing and containing the spread of the virus is the best course of action for them.
It is hard for some sections of society and not everyone is in agreement but the majority of the population are. A outbreak and spread of the virus in a country like NZ ,would be devastating.

 

So glad we have a perfect and highly funded health service that has been very well supported by the government so that we can pretend the virus doesn't exist and do half arsed restrictions for 18 months and pretend we're world leaders.

Blessed to be British.

 

It was interesting listening to Simon Doull, a New Zealander, commentating on the cricket the other night. He said he's not allowed back in the country even if he wanted to, not even to quarantine.

 

If you've got a work visa which has run out, what do you do I wonder?

 

They have a very decent & able prime minister for a start..

 

Great summary. I suppose a big issue for them will be the fear of how bad the spread will be even with the vaccine as they have had such little exposure to he virus as a population.
We know that even in a highly vaccinated population 10s of thousands of cases a day are still possible.
They have spent the last 18 months conditioning themselves to the thought that any level of cases is unacceptable.
New Zealand and Australia have taken a approach that I fully understand but in doing so have really cut themselves off from the rest of the world. No matter how gradually they open the doors, whe they do the case numbers will almost certainly rise. It will be interesting to see how they react to that.

 

Interesting question but I have no idea, you can’t expect another country to host your citizen indefinitely.

 

Pal of mine was there during the first lock down. He’d hired a camper van and had planned on 3 month over there. Second week they locked down and he was forced into a designated B&B and was effectively under house arrest and not allowed out until flight was sorted out for him.
Said it drove him nuts stuck in a room for nearly 2 weeks.