New Zealand has gained some more publicity after the Prime Minister announced that the so-called Lockdown was over, and the coronavirus Covid-19 has been ‘eliminated’. Contrary to this public relations, the lockdown actually continues, and it is doubtful whether ‘community transmission’ ever occurred here, in the way that it swept across other countries. When I said we had been lucky in the previous post this has continued, if the virus had not got into some rest homes the death toll would still be in single figures. The number of people in intensive care has always been in single figures; and while some care workers and a few nurses got he virus, it has only been fatal for elderly people with underlying conditions. Was this good luck, or good policy management. Time will tell. The lockdown was imposed in a panic measure because of what was happening overseas to other health systems, and because a viable testing practice was not in place.

On a personal level the lockdown continues. I’ve been based north of Wellington on the Kapiti Coast, trying to look after a difficult octogenerian, while my mother is alone in our family apartment in the city. In principle, at the new level 3 form of lockdown, I can only go back to Wellington if I can prove to a police checkpoint that I live there (this is more difficult than it seems), and it is a single journey; and my mother would have to come  back up north, and stay here until level 3 ends. So the only change is that the aging octogenerian can go to the shops when likes, and I could go back to work if I still had a job.

So the central part of the day is my bike ride to the Waikanae River, and a bench seat with this view, looking towards Waikanae. It’s been fine, and could be worse I suppose.