Coronavirus update from New Zealand - flattening the curve!

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With the Coronavirus spreading to all corners of the world, and countries taking different tactics to slow the spread I thought I would share how New Zealand is doing during this global pandemic.

New Zealand is nearly 3 weeks into a 4 week national lockdown - this means that only essential businesses have remained open - supermarkets, health and not much else. Everyone else is staying home for a month - working from home where possible. The rhetoric we have been told time and time again is ´stay home, save lives´, and it seems to be working.

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The lockdown is coming at a massive economic cost, but the results are nothing short of incredible. For a country of around 5 million we have 1,349 confirmed and probably cases of Covid-19 with 546 recovered and only 5 deaths. The incredible thing is that our new infections have been dropping for a few days now - yesterday we only had 19 confirmed and probable cases! Down from a high of around 90 ten days ago.

Although optimistic, our prime minister has said there will not be a decision on moving out of the lockdown until April 20th. Even if we do move out of lockdown there will still be restrictions. Some think that another couple of weeks would be a good idea to make sure the virus is gone (as close to gone as possible anyway!), while others want to get our country moving again. Both are good arguments as we cant be at a standstill forever, but want to make sure the lockdown has been worth it.

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There are around 13 ´clusters´ of cases - ten or more cases traced to a specific event or place. Sadly some of these are in rest homes, and could amount to further deaths and severe illness.

I have got into some heated debated on here about Covid-19 as some believe in herd immunity and some think it is no worse than the common flu. Theres nothing wrong with herd immunity if done right. But just letting the virus run rampant will never work and will over run the hospitals and lead to many more deaths that could have otherwise been prevented. In my mind this virus shouldnt even be compared to the common flu - the flu has a vaccine for one, and most people have built up immunity to it. Covid-19 on the other hand is new and will affect the majority of the population in the coming months/years. It is still in its infancy and has already killed around 120k people. Because of exponential growth it is killing more people everyday. RANT OVER.

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I would love to hear how Covid-19 is affecting your country and if there is a lockdown when they plan to lift it and start trying to get back to some form of normality.

Stay safe everyone!



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11 comments
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kiwi power!

pretty soon we're going to have to restart and let the boomers die ... payback is a bitch

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Well we cant stay lockdown forever. We will end up in a worse situation with no money or jobs and people dieing of hunger. 6 weeks seems good to me.

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i think you're right... sometime in may,,, scary shit, but real

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Yep. I thin for us here 2 more weeks SHOULD be enough. It might have to be anyway

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I would love to hear how Covid-19 is affecting your country and if there is a lockdown when they plan to lift it and start trying to get back to some form of normality.

Our rugby teams are sitting around getting fat and lazy...Easy pickings for your Warriors once games resume.

Lol.

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Haha ours are doing the same! Lol warriors are rubbish at the best of times 😂

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Well, it's going to be a laugh watching all those fat lazy bastards running around like a bunch of galoots when the season starts.

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Yep! Maybe sumo wrestling will become a new sport here

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Big Mac eating...Then Sumo wrestling...Lol.

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