Jami's Project - Day 28

We've survived some of the world's strictest Covid-19 restrictions. Our lockdown will be eased back to level three from next Tuesday, the day after the Anzac Day long weekend. Then those businesses that can function while practising social distancing can re-open. Those involved in setting up their businesses to operate under the new rules can do so from Thursday. My daughter has been involved in the planning to get her workplace (a timber manufacturing plant) back up and running safely. A huge job. Many tasks will have to be performed differently and there will be physical changes as well. Those that can are to continue working from home.

On-line shopping is only about 8% of the country's retail trade so that will change as retailers scramble to set up on-line systems. I'm sure most of them would have been doing that during the lockdown anyway. It's amazing how creative people are when push comes to shove.

So many people are more interested in takeaways than anything else. Makes you wonder about their usual diets. Anyway, takeaways will be back with the social distancing rules but restaurants and bars stay closed.

The tourism and hospitality industries have been decimated. One in eight Kiwis work in tourism. It's our largest export industry in terms of foreign exchange earnings and around 200,000 work in hospitality with about half that number working in restaurants and bars. I wonder what the future holds for those people?

I will continue to stay at home.  The message is if you are not at work, school, exercising or getting essentials, then you must be at home, the same as at Level 4.

The Government still wants the vast majority of people working from home, and children and young people learning from home.

We'll stay at level 3 for another 2 weeks when the government will decide what to do next.

I'm happy for those who have jobs to go back to and really feel for those who have lost their businesses and jobs. There are so many in that camp.

I'm rambling. I often do that when there's something I want to express and don't know how. I'm trying to understand what is probably a character flaw in myself. Why I get sidetracked so completely by one little thing that shouldn't matter. I tell myself it's only a word but I don't listen.

The thing that is stuck in my craw is the use of the word eliminate. I always thought I knew what it meant. And I thought it was interchangeable with eradicate.

But no, after weeks of being told NZ was going to eliminate this virus, that the lady would accept nothing less than zero cases, that's why we were going so hard, we're now told eliminate doesn't mean get rid of it. Here's what it means – this is a direct quote.
"Elimination doesn't mean zero cases, it means zero tolerance for cases.  It means when a case emerges, and it will, we test, we contact trace, we isolate, and we do that every single time with the ambition that when we see Covid-19, we eliminate it.  That is how we will keep our transmission rate under 1, and it is how we will keep succeeding."

(Learn from the master snake oil salesperson!)

And, in under an hour after this announcement, the media stops using the word and starts using eradicate.  This is from one of yesterdays newspapers:  "Today's announcement about stepping down the response levels is a welcome one.  Last month New Zealand made the big decision to adopt an elimination goal in response to Covid-19 and go into a very tight lockdown.  That move has achieved much in terms of reducing virus transmission and giving us time to get key systems working to ensure we can sustain elimination."

Obviously they understand what is completely beyond me. 

Eradicate VERB

destroy completely; put an end to.

Eliminate VERB

completely remove or get rid of (something).

I just want to record some of the new rules:

Stay regional. You can exercise at parks or beaches within your region, but the closer to home the better. Activities must be safe – keep two metres away from anybody not in your bubble. Make minimal trips. (They have replaced 'close to home' with 'regional', the meaning of which has not yet been clarified.)

Keep bubble as small as possible. If you need to, you can expand your bubble a small amount to bring in close family, isolated people or caregivers.

That qualifies as a rant for me. It had to happen sooner or later! 

This is my daily entry for Jami's Project whereby she wants to create a collection of journal entries from people of different ages, from different countries and different parts of this country, during this 30-day, Covid-19 period. She wants to highlight how “in this together” we all are, regardless of government policies, and the influence it will have on our wellbeing and to evaluate what individuals do to cope. She has participants from Alaska, Canary Island, France, Canada and Norway. (Jami is my grand-daughter.)

The Daily Count

Total cases 1445, Northland 27

5 new cases

12 in hospital

1006 recovered

13 deaths

There have now been 4 days of random testing and so far no positive cases have been found.