I’m at a live sporting event with 40,000 people

[FenceFuckery]

It’s WEIRD. Zero social distancing or masks or anything. The whole stadium just gave essential workers a standing ovation. It’s strangely emotional!

Kind of crazy to think this is one of the largest gathering of people at any point around the world right now.

The level of hysteria on this thread scares me more than covid! New Zealand appear to have dealt with it well this time, so I am sure if any cases pop up they will deal with it well again. The idea that the country should stay shut down, in case someone somewhere has it and has no symptoms is bonkers. We can't keep large parts of the world shut down for ever, and there is no guarantee of a vaccine. I can't wait until the same can happen here!

In NZ there is literally not one known case of COVID and hasn't been a case for some time now.

Take a bow and enjoy your game I say. We're all just a bit jealous I think hence the snarky comments

The idea that NZ are done and dusted with CoVid is for the birds, and those that know nothing at all about how coronavirus spreads - and will continue to spread.

Goodo, pigeon; I hope you’ve been on the line to Jacinda et al already offering your services as apparently you’re so much better informed than their teams.

I'm in WA and hopefully we will be safe to do the same very soon. We only have 11 current cases and they are all in quarantine. We were down to 2 cases, but we had to let a ship dock in Fremantle that had infected crew, which put our numbers up again. Mark Magowan our Premier has done a fantastic job standing up to useless ScoMo, and refusing to open the border yet. I read he has something like a 90% approval rating on how he has handled covid. We are almost back to normal, for now at least, and are very grateful for it.

And I don’t think anyone would say they’re permanently ‘done and dusted’ depending on what’s happening with borders - but it’s safe enough for now.

We hope there are no cases. We have already had a film crew arrive who 'apparently' mixed with other guests at a Wellington hotel.

I'm jealous, I want to go to a mass gathering! Specifically, a gig I was meant to be at in April.

Whilst I fully accept that the UK could have done far better in the management of Covid, comparing it to NZ always gives me the rage. Auckland has a sixth of the population of London and NZ total population is less than London. Can people not see how it is easier to track, trace and eliminate when populations are smaller. NZ was also in their summer at start of Covid with lots of people being outdoors. We were in winter where we are stuck India, close to others and people are more prone to getting bugs, especially chesty one.
I love NZ, have lots of friends there and am delighted that they appear to be Covid free and enjoying rugby again but comparisons to UK are just idiotic.

India ???

@Lily193 tourism isn’t the mainstay of the economy. Agriculture takes the lead on that one, and we are doing pretty well there I think.

The government are letting people in if they are going to significantly impact on the economic well-being of NZ, hence my comment earlier about the Avatar crew. It’s 2 weeks quarantine, not 3 also.

The lack of immunity does worry me. I’m scared that if anything happens to my family back in England then I can’t just go home. I’m worried that it will be years before things open up again to the extent it was before.

For now though, i think NZ has done a pretty damn good job with the least amount of impact on the economy possible. We went into a full lockdown early, but now have been able to open everything back up again. Yes it’s really sucked for a lot of tourism companies, but there is now a huge push for kiwis to travel domestically which will help.

It's cool that things are more or less back to normal inside NZ. And it will be good for the country to have more domestic tourism.

We're supposed to be going for Christmas, which doesn't look likely any more.

If NO CASES of the virus is “too early”, then when the hec is it okay to be normal again?!

Honest to god, some people have taken leave of their senses.

@GrouchyKiwi - I hope you are able to travel. I missed my Mum's 90th in the UK and still have flights booked for later in the year. Fingers tightly crossed that quarantine is eased, I definitely do not want to do 2 weeks in the UK and then another 2 weeks here when I get home.

Ah enjoy the game OP, my OH and I are very jealous. MotoGP is starting back soon so at least we’ll have that to watch until the six nations returns.

It won't be long before UK gets back to that too! We haven't dealt with covid as efficiently as NZ but there's only so much physical and social distancing that the brits will adhere to.

@bulletjournalbilly

I can't wait for this to be the U.K.!

Well the speed at which the stupid twat in Downing Street (I'll let you make your own mind up whether that refers to cummings or his puppet) is lifting things i reckon next month 🙈

That must be an amazing feeling. I long for normality I just hope we don't lift anything else too soon here in England.

Jacinda Arden has done an absolutely amazing job.

If only the UK was tiny at the bottom of the world without the worlds largest international airport, having a huge land mass and small population - smaller than the population of London...

Easy to shut down a country like that. Well done.

@SockYarn If nobody has it, nobody will be able to pass it on and there will be no "boom".. Absolutely! But don't start with the logic, t really upsets the drama-llamas!

@vdbfamily

Exactly.

I don’t get why people still do not understand demographics and population density or even virus mutations.

Compare 30000 deaths New York .pop 8.9 million

Uk approx 41000 deaths . Pop 66 million?

It’s not always down to the government , if in theory all the population had been social distancing 2m and washing hands do you think we would all be covid free now ? Or is it because the population just won’t do what they are told ?

@squeekums I take it you have been in SA all this time?

I love Jacinda Ardern.

NZ total population is less than London.

This!

Ooh enjoy, OP!

I'm just excited the Formula 1 will be back soon

@SusieOwl4 - social distancing etc was taken really seriously here, the Government told us what they wanted us to do and most of us did just that. There were people who ignored the regulations but they were very few and that is the reason NZ is (hopefully) Covid19 free.

So yes, the government did put forward the regulations but it was down to the population who did what we were told to do.

@TyrannosaurusBex

I’m in Guernsey, we’re into our 7th week without a new case and life is largely back to normal, but we’re still limiting social gatherings to 30 people and restaurants etc are keeping records of contact details. I think that’s pretty sensible, although I am looking forward to next Saturday when we really will be back to normal within our Bailiwick Bubble.

TyrannosaurusBex I was just coming on to say the same thing!

I am so glad to be a Guernsey Girl and live here. We've been incredibly lucky with our leadership and the team behind them. Dr Brink had been planning for this for her whole career and as soon as it started she went into action, no faffing and as a result, we go into Phase 5 next Saturday with everything back to normal in the Bailiwick with the exception being self isolation on return to the Island.