They just introduced the same regulations that Norway introduced on Thursday, except Norway makes an exception for Sweden and Finland, not the Pacific islands. I guess the difference is that NZ is...
This decision will mean New Zealand will have the widest ranging and toughest border restrictions of any country in the world.
They just introduced the same regulations that Norway introduced on Thursday, except Norway makes an exception for Sweden and Finland, not the Pacific islands.
I guess the difference is that NZ is introducing these measures now, when they only have six confirmed cases. Norway just reached 1,000 confirmed cases with a comparable population. I’m guessing this is largely due to our much closer proximity to Italy. Lots of people traveling there over the recent winter break, coincidentally just as the epidemic exploded in North Italy, which nobody predicted.
This country is pretty much in lockdown right now. All the schools are closed from kindergarten up through university, all public events banned (the only thing that seems to gather people right now is press conferences about the virus), all the bars are closed as well as hairdressers, massage parlors and other businesses that require close physical contact, large parts of the population including myself are quarantined, everybody else is strongly encouraged to work from home if at all possible. Foreign nonresidents are turned away at the borders. All nonessential travel, domestic and abroad, is strongly discouraged. We’ve started rationing paracetamol.
I wonder if New Zealand got lucky, geographically speaking, or if they did something right that we didn’t. From where I’m standing, it seems like most of these measures were introduced at a time when it was reasonable given the information that was available at the time, but not ideal in hindsight. Perhaps some things could have been introduced slightly earlier, but we’re talking days, not weeks or months. Our PM made the point that introducing draconian measures the likes of which haven’t been seen since WW2 too early would be ineffective as people wouldn’t respect them. The authorities don’t have the resources to police thousands upon thousands of people in self isolation - they have to do it out of a sense of social obligation and empathy with at-risk groups. This is very much an issue that cannot be solved top-down without grassroots support.
I think we got lucky. Australia had cases in January and that could easily have been us as well. Both countries have a lot of Chinese residents who visited for Chinese new year, etc. But while we...
I think we got lucky. Australia had cases in January and that could easily have been us as well. Both countries have a lot of Chinese residents who visited for Chinese new year, etc.
But while we didn't get cases, we did follow Australia's policies of restricting travel from China, Iran, etc.
This slowed is to have only the 6 confirmed cases, each originating from a country not yet bound by travel restrictions at the time (Iran, Italy, USA).
They just introduced the same regulations that Norway introduced on Thursday, except Norway makes an exception for Sweden and Finland, not the Pacific islands.
I guess the difference is that NZ is introducing these measures now, when they only have six confirmed cases. Norway just reached 1,000 confirmed cases with a comparable population. I’m guessing this is largely due to our much closer proximity to Italy. Lots of people traveling there over the recent winter break, coincidentally just as the epidemic exploded in North Italy, which nobody predicted.
This country is pretty much in lockdown right now. All the schools are closed from kindergarten up through university, all public events banned (the only thing that seems to gather people right now is press conferences about the virus), all the bars are closed as well as hairdressers, massage parlors and other businesses that require close physical contact, large parts of the population including myself are quarantined, everybody else is strongly encouraged to work from home if at all possible. Foreign nonresidents are turned away at the borders. All nonessential travel, domestic and abroad, is strongly discouraged. We’ve started rationing paracetamol.
I wonder if New Zealand got lucky, geographically speaking, or if they did something right that we didn’t. From where I’m standing, it seems like most of these measures were introduced at a time when it was reasonable given the information that was available at the time, but not ideal in hindsight. Perhaps some things could have been introduced slightly earlier, but we’re talking days, not weeks or months. Our PM made the point that introducing draconian measures the likes of which haven’t been seen since WW2 too early would be ineffective as people wouldn’t respect them. The authorities don’t have the resources to police thousands upon thousands of people in self isolation - they have to do it out of a sense of social obligation and empathy with at-risk groups. This is very much an issue that cannot be solved top-down without grassroots support.
I think we got lucky. Australia had cases in January and that could easily have been us as well. Both countries have a lot of Chinese residents who visited for Chinese new year, etc.
But while we didn't get cases, we did follow Australia's policies of restricting travel from China, Iran, etc.
This slowed is to have only the 6 confirmed cases, each originating from a country not yet bound by travel restrictions at the time (Iran, Italy, USA).