Covid19-The second wave

BY RAJITHA RATWATTE-August 21, 2020
fromoutsidethepearl@gmail.com

Well it is here in Aotearoa, the dreaded 2nd wave of the virus. After over 100 days of no infections within the country, a worker in a frozen food import facility has been diagnosed. He has apparently had symptoms since the 31st of July but got tested only on the 6th of August. Now his whole family and a number of contacts have also tested positive. To compound matters this family has travelled on holiday to a number of resort towns in the North Island, and it gets worse, they have visited a relative in an age care facility! One of the Children goes to a school that has 3,000 students. The husband and the wife’s work places have transmissions of the virus, and the school and the age care facility we don’t know about.

These people live in what is considered the poorer areas in the south of Auckland. Judging by this and the type of work done by the husband and wife it is very possible that they belong to a minority race. However, they seem to be rather affluent as the holiday they have enjoyed does not seem to have suffered from financial constraints. The holiday has included visits to museums, art galleries, Thai restaurants, boat trips and of course fast food outlets! Unfortunately, this makes the possibility of a spread of the infection greater. Sometimes, people of the minor races prefer to live among their own people and in areas where the shops and restaurants cater to their tastes and needs. This is no reflection of their financial status.

The news broke to the general populace about 8.30 pm on Tuesday the 11th of August. Auckland which is the main area affected was put into level 3 lockdown. This means no restaurants and bars, only take away food and gathering only within your bubble and a maximum of 10 people. The rest of the country into level 2, which means gatherings of a maximum of 100 people only. All supermarkets and pharmacies are open and only essential workers can go to work. Everyone else works from home. Face masks are advised and social distancing of course, prevails.

An interesting fact is that the genome of this new infection is apparently different to the one that prevailed earlier. The genome of this germ seems to be more closely related to the disease prevalent in the UK. From there we proceed to the question how did this infection start. The initial and logical theory was that the imported frozen food handled by the worker contained the germ. We have no details of this. Accepted facts broadcast regularly on BBC says, this infection can live on plastic and glass for 72 hours and extreme cold or heat cannot kill it.

Meanwhile, Winston Peters the outspoken deputy prime minister and leader of the Maori party has given an interview to Australian Television, saying that he has reliable information that this infection is due to a quarantine violation. We have no further evidence on this either.

The cabinet met again on Friday (15th) afternoon to review the situation and decide how to proceed. The opposition was waiting to pounce. There is general election due soon remember and the opposition looks like they are going to lose on similar lines to that which happened in the Pearl. They are desperate, and they represent the rich white people of NZ. If the lockdown level was increased to a higher level, they would have started screaming about the economic damage. It was a tricky decision, handled beautifully; the present level of lockdown is to remain for a total of two weeks. A review will be done on the 21st of August depending on, if the available data is better or worse than expected, the lockdown level will be increased or reduced.

A great decision I say because now the people know what to expect. If they wish to be foolish and abuse the freedoms available at level 3 and consequently the lockdown level has to be increased, well, it is their problem. The resulting economic damage cannot be blamed on the government. Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry is extending the benefits offered to meet wage payments for affected businesses. It seems they had plans in place and had not spent the full allocation of funds approved. I guess in retrospect and hindsight, it would have been only a miracle that would have stopped the second wave. There will also be increased paid leave available for those who are required to self-isolate.

There are loud requests for the postponement of elections from the opposition as certain immediate defeat is worse that possible later defeat! Governance in these turbulent times makes the possibility of mistakes higher and an opposition waiting on the sidelines to capitalise on mistakes can only benefit. I say postpone the elections and let the opposition live in hope. Because when they lose after all excuses have been removed, it makes the victory sweeter! This is the civilized decision to make and I hope it prevails.

Well, it has been done. The election has been postponed by 4 weeks. The reason given by the PM include the need to have a “safe, accessible and credible” election, an election that “delivers certainty for the future” and an election held in the “best interests of the voter in our democracy”. When delivering this decision, the PM mentioned 3 countries that had held elections without postponement, when “managing” Covid19. Sri Lanka was NOT mentioned!

The total of infections due to this second wave is no 56. All but one has been identified as coming from the one source. The doubtful one is also probably linked to this source, but the patient is in hospital and I guess final confirmation will come when that patient can be approached. The plan is to identify the perimeter of the full cluster in two weeks and if it looks like it can be contained, the level of lockdown will be eased. Testing continues at a furious pace, with a record number of 15 thousand tests being done on the 14th of August.

We are in the last weekend of the Super Rugby Aotearoa tournament. The cup has already been won by the South Island based Canterbury Crusaders with a match to spare. However, this weekend game was a complete sell out with over 40 thousand tickets sold for the game between the Crusaders and the Auckland Blues. The Auckland Blues have shown a resurgence of form after many decades, their fans were hoping for great things. Beating the Canterbury side which has now won 3 Super Rugby tournaments in a row was something all of us were looking forward to. This was to be played at Eden Park stadium in Auckland and is now cancelled. Level 3 lockdown does not allow such a large amount of people to gather in one place. In fact, it does not even allow the teams to gather, without spectators!

Most of us went to at least one match and enjoyed some fantastic quality rugby and the atmosphere that goes with a full stadium. Again, we have been luckier than most and should be grateful, here in Aotearoa.

It is “interesting times ahead” for us in Aotearoa and all we can do is stay within the rules and be kind to each other!