Justcol

And then in no time we'll all be back at level 4 again

paddy234

Australia is expecting it's lockdown to last a year as it's not aimed at elimination but minimization. One year of level 3 would hurt the economy more than 4 weeks of level 4. We are in a better position that Australia because of how we have acted, there is no point changing that when we are almost there

paddy234

Agreed but we will be back in lockdown for 4-8 weeks this time meaning businesses are more likely to collapse. If we have the end in sight now wouldn't it be better to keep doing what we are doing in the short term, most are even calling for it to be extended til at least after Anzac Day. Dropping alert level 4 for 2 business days this week would be pointless anyway and most businesses aren't ready.

Justcol

I would quite happily stay as we are on level 4 until we have a few zero new cases days.

Mishclark

Good news for me, I finally got some loo paper yesterday, haven't had any since I got here 😁

Charismatic

Is the speech writer getting paid by the word?

Executive summary:

jarv5116

the numbers look bigger in OZ. if you do per capita it's pretty much the same as OZ.
I totally agree thou.
The problem is NZ can't handle a big wave of patients. Have a look at the ICU beds available in NZ. its pretty scary. would be proper screwed if had any sort of wave of patients needing ICU beds.
I hope it goes good with level 3 and we can get the economy up in running again.
I read somewhere aswell that when the cases get up to about 50 per day. The NZ contact tracing system starts to fail and Lag. which is one of the mean reasons they jumped into level 4 to try and keep it controlled.

Bo-Jangles

It's a no win situation, whatever was decided would be the wrong answer for someone. I think extending level 4 until after the weekend was a good call and gives people a bit more time to brace themselves and prepare for getting back to work both mentally and physically, if they have to.

I admit to feeling a bit tearful today listening to Jacinda, she really tugged at the heartstrings. "Stay strong, stay home, be kind, and let's finish what we started."

I don't know how the heck she doesn't lose her cool with the inane and banal whining questions from the media. Looking at you Tova 'haven't we made it across the line already?' O'Brien who seems to be asking questions on behalf of Simon Bridges.

paddy234

New Zealand has the most unprofessional mainstream media i have ever witnessed, i find them intolerable and shut off.

chocolate cake

Takeways will be packed???? Only in drive ins, otherwise only takeaways available are thiose with deliveries in level 3 so packed in a drive in queue ain't going to be spreading any virus outside the car.

I stand by my point, as on the targets originally set, we're ready to move to level 3 on Thursday, instead we get another 5 days in level 4. With level 3, on my high street it won't see any other shop open under level 3. So that's 2 pharmacies partially open, and one fruit shop, evrything else shut for further 3 weeks min.

What it would have seen is a few businesses that actually make things open a tad earlier, and construction and other things beginning in a safe environment. Level 3 sees barely extension to one's bubble. People will not be dropping into others homes?, have you read level 3 restrictions. Likewise beaches, and parks remains the 2 metre distance.
Some seem to have agenda to push the extension, todays herald had people walking on Takapuna beach, they all seemed to be well spread and 5 metres apart never mind 2m. There's less chance of anything spreading than strolling round the supermarket.

Makes no difference to me in short term, as I've actually been renote working from home, as I work for a company in essential services, and been as busy as ever.
However there's plenty that will not be going back to a job, it's ok to be receiving the wage subsidy in the short term, and many advocating longer extension of level 4 to further 2 or 3 weeks is madness. I've never been a particular Winston Peters fan but his interview yesterday seemed sensible, and a reasonable balance.

chocolate cake

Yeah, that's too true, I've yet to spot any flour in our local Foodtown and New World for over 6 weeks, except yesterday at New World when they had some 20kg bags of flour!

chocolate cake

I guess time will tell. Australia seem to be managing number of cases quite well, remember thery are 4 times bigger than NZ population wise. Also Australia is more open country transit travelwise, on many things it moved quicker than NZ, in implementing border controls. I travelled to Australia in Feb, there were more controls when I went there than two weeks later coming back to NZ.

Most experts say elimination is unlikely.

MrsFychan

there was a good tweet on Twitter yesterday about why the journalist ask inane questions,main gist was that its to get the soundbites they want, its to make the answerer (is that a word?) frame the answer in a number of ways so more people will understand it.

Mishclark

And Virgin Australia goes belly up.

jarv5116

Yeah I was just reading Branson is wanting a bail out.
Was reading he only owns 10% of the company.
Think alot of companies are going need some serious government bail outs.