When I emailed our extended family to say that we were back in lockdown in New Zealand, my almost brother-in-law asked how many cases had put us there. The answer is one. This has been a focus of attention of foreign media, but was no surprise to most Kiwis who valued the relatively normal, COVID-free lives we had been living during most of the pandemic.
I’m delighted that we have a trigger-happy government that put us into complete lockdown within a day because one person in the community tested positive for COVID-19. Because we have the luxury of giving elimination another try. And it just might work.
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Level four is the harshest lockdown level in New Zealand and it is way stricter than lockdowns in other countries. Only essential workers can go out to work. Everybody else has to be at home unless you need to buy groceries, go to the pharmacy/post office, or go out to exercise. I had a cold when we went into lockdown and though I said I had no reason to think it was the novel coronavirus, the local health centre invited me in for a test (like all COVID-19-related healthcare, testing is free). The last time I did it it wasn’t so bad, but it’s really uncomfortable if you have a sore throat. Then we had to absolutely stay home for two days whilst I waited for the results. Thankfully negative.
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