Wellington incoming... trilogy

Now I have to find another title if I do another post on Wellington's covid-19 situation.

I knew level 2 was going to be extended before COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said so. I thought it would be another week though, not two days. But I have no particular problem with this.

He talked a lot more this time than Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield which I see as good, he has a good understanding of covid-19 to answer questions and not be overly reliant on Ashley Bloomfield. Not that he can't stand his ground and the relationship between them both is great.

Aside from his approachable goofiness which I enjoy, it seems the NZ government are making sensible decisions: Hipkins not only explained the government are trying to have the least disruption on everyday life, but also realize the economic cost. Good on you in that respect New Zealand. Good on you.

Although I am new to the updates, when watching this one I do feel like I need to fight /defend Chris Hipkins to some extent. I totally agree with mandatory masking in as many places as possible, regardless if you can social distance. I understand mandatory scanning. However, it can be hard to enforce both: it depends on the people, even if the government states you will be fined for not wearing one - if you have enough money, you can keep paying fines. Mandatory scanning I am completely in agreement with Chris Hipkins about it being hard to enforce: here we have temperature checks that depending on where you are you check yourself, someone makes sure you do or they hold one to the middle of your forehead. We can scan with our mobile as well so contact tracing can be done if needed. 

However, if the temperature machine is a self-check one, you can walk right past it as they are not always manned. I was at a restaurant and the man put the device to check temperature to two of the people I was going with's foreheads and made a noise with his mouth, but did not actually check their temperatures - this was in April or May or June 2020. As for scanning QR codes, again, you can walk right past them. You can choose the QR code or writing down the essential information here, but again, if it relies on you and is not manned, you can just not do it. If it is manned, then they get you to scan or write.

For more context, I am in one of the safest places in the World for covid-19; we have one of the lowest infected cases and death tolls in a place that has or has had imported and community cases. We have never been in lockdown. I worked from home for a month and this happened once. We wear masks and hand sanitizer is everywhere. I personally have wet wipes.

I am not sure about the logistics of enforcing mandatory mask wearing and an extra person for the QR codes in New Zealand. Here, there are police checking we are wearing masks and there are a lot of places where a person or two makes sure you scan the QR code and/or writes your details down. Maybe we have the resources and/or man power and/or perspective it is necessary.

As covid-19 has demonstrated, you cannot adopt what seems or is working in one place to another place.

What is for sure, any government needs to act efficiently with all its contributing factors to contain covid, regardless of the variant. On an international scale, Australia right now is struggling it seems. India has had problems. So have Italy, the UK, Brazil, Argentina, the US.

On an international scale, Taiwan didn't initially, like Viet Nam. Singapore too. Japan was doing ok.

On an international scale, South Korea (I think), Hong Kong have always done good.

- A.M.