To be shocked at how normal everything looks in New Zealand?

[GoldenLabbie]

Huge crowds seeing the New Year. No masks, no social distancing. You wouldn’t know that the rest of the world is in the grip of a pandemic looking at those scenes. How did we manage to get it so wrong but they got it so right? When you look at that you realise how the rest have screwed up so badly don’t you? I wonder what they make of all?

But uk is so different from Nz and being part of europe where there is a lot of travel between countries as its cheap and easy , nz does not have this sort of travelling

I can't imagine that hordes of people were wanting to travel to the UK in a pandemic, so it should have been relatively easy to quarantine anyone who did. The selfish Brits who insisted they must go to other parts of Europe for their summer holidays should have been made to quarantine on their arrival back - which might have had the added bonus of stopping some of them going in the first place!

Stop using the @ symbol. It’s annoying. I’m on the thread you don’t need to @ me.

donewithitalltodayandxmas makes up her own internet rules, notbad. Including stating that NZ can’t “have an economy” if there is prolonged closure of borders. And then refuses to provide evidence, asks others to disprove her own statement of unproven fact.

I was going to say that she said that prolonged border closure was untenable, but synonyms aren’t really donewithitalltodayandxmas‘s forte. I suspect I’d get accused again of “making up words”.

Those Asian countries, on the doorstep of Wuhan, locked down properly and early and their citizens followed the rules. It isn’t rocket science as to why they’ve done so much better. The UK has done none of that and paid the price.

@Laradv in the march lockdown people really followed it here even with mothers day and easter and places were empty and apparently even london was very quiet.
We were also allowed for walks only and suoermarket shopping was very tightly contolled ( that seems to have been forgotten) we never had masks at first and actually some when masks became compulsory almost forgot the sd.
We did get our numbers quite low in summer despite busy beaches and protests etc
I don't really know why we attempted holidays as everyday the deatinations changed of who you could go to and I am surprised europe as a whole didn't stop travel but then again some eu countries really depend on tourism , it is devastating for them as its a large part of their economy

@NotBadConsidering you really haven't read have you , japan barely had a lockdown

Not completely an island. The UK has a land border with Republic of Ireland.

Australia is made up of several states and yet they managed to close them off from each other.

I’ve asked to directly to stop using the @ symbol to me. It’s rude when you’ve been asked directly.

@eaglejulesk they did have to quarantine unless going to a country with an air bubble agreed

I believe so. I think it will be a slow, but planned roll out of the vac's. I dont see the roll out to be finished before the end of 2021 anyway and most people will accept whatever the goverments plan is.

My biggest wish is that all people will just listen and follow the rules, that way the world will go back to normal so much quicker.

Japanese people are inherently more socially conscientious. It’s normal to go around Tokyo and see people wearing masks, even before Covid. Too many people in the UK don’t give a shit about anyone else. Such social dismissal would cause horror in Japan.

@nolongersurprised i do not have to provide evidence its there for you to go read
Even someone from nz has posted it has a slight affect on the economy and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that years of closed borders would have an impact and I did say years
And also I am not stupid , maybe dyslexic but not stupid

Do you live here and know all people in uk or just what you read
Most people are following the rules and if you had read about japan you would know its not just that
Are you slagging of france , italy or is it just the british
People are tiring if the rules now and the reason i use at as loads do is so you know whose question or comment is being read , how is it annoying its a feature on mumsnet to be used for a purpose
Many people are struggling now bit we certainly are not all selfish and the vast majority have followed all the rules

Has it been confirmed that NZ will have its borders closed for years.

Australia had already opened its borders to NZ.

Nice to hear from someone who can see the bigger picture a little

We all see the bigger picture - I have been at pains to acknowledge the geographical and population-based advantages we have had.

Yes, we took advantage of those key things in our favour - as we should have. Why wouldn’t we?

Equally, there seems to be an absolute determination to ignore the fact that had we taken a similar approach to other countries, COVID would have ravaged our country, just as much as its ravaged others.

Our lockdown was much harder than anything the UK attempted. If we’d done a UK style ‘lockdown’, our geographical location and relatively small population would simply not have helped.

As I say, one of our biggest cluster was a wedding, where the groom’s father died.
For those of you who haven’t been to NZ, I’m assuming you think we all live in houses where our nearest neighbour is half a kilometre away, or something. Yes, there are a few remote communities who live like this, but they are the exception.

Again. Had Boris, or indeed an alternative Kiwi (Collins, Bridges, et al) been in charge, we categorically would not be living pandemic-free right now.

Has the UK controlled the number of cases? No.

Have people died needlessly in the UK? Yes.

Has the NHS been protected? No. It’s overrun with Covid cases and care of other conditions has suffered.

Has the UK’s economy been saved by people continuing to work? No.

Have many countries around the world with similar populations or greater, with just as much travellers arriving, with just as much economic dependence on their neighbours done much better at managing Covid? Yes.

There is not a single benchmark that suggests the UK has done a good job, or done the best it could in the circumstances, or done well considering the how bad it could have been.

The only way someone could think the management has met or exceeded expectations is if those expectations were so low to start with.

People have died needlessly in the UK. People have died needlessly.

Needlessly.

No it was mentioned that if they had to have borders closed for years it would be hard to do
But lady concerned said that there would be no impact on economies if borders had to be shut for years

@Laradv

Hi all. I am currently in NZ. I agree with most comments. Yes we are small, yes, we only have 5 million people, but we acted hard and fast. We had the advantage of seeing what was happening in Europe (Italy) and once Covid struck here, Jacinda went on hard lockdown. From level 2 to level 4 in something like 72 hours. I remember that day so well. The announcement was at 1pm. By the next day, the CBD (Wellington) was a ghost town. People with PC screens on the busses and trains, bags of work taken home. Everyone just listened to her instructions and rules and was disciplined. And although we could still go for walks during level 4, social distancing was taken very seriously. Our borders is tightly shut, and yes, the economy is feeling it, but on the longrun this is working. Our kids are back in normal schooling routines, our workplaces is functioning as normal and the general population is continuing as normal. Sport is continuing, festivals is open and this summer we all went on our summer breaks within the country, which is again helping the economy. So we are actually just living in our own little planet for now.

I only wore a mask for 2 weeks on public transport, and yes, we do scan our Covid app, but again, we see it is a responsibility.

That all being said, I think we, in NZ, dont really know or understand the daily impact of what you guys are going through. We only read about it or if we watch the news. So, with that, much love, prayers and thoughts of encouragement from NZ

Also in NZ and would agree with this 100%. The first lockdown was a massive shock for many, it was so quick and we couldn't even do things like shopping online (other than for the most basic of essentials like food).

I will also add that the communication to the public has overall been very good (not perfect, but given how quickly circumstances have changed at points along the way, I think it's been very well handled). I think that's also helped as generally it's been quite clear what guidelines we should all be following.

You guys did do well and then the travel started again. I know remember reading in the news that everyday you guys had different rules. And then different countries that was opened for travel and then closed again. It was a shitshow of a time. So yeah, maybe saying that your goverment didnt really know what they were doing, is summoning it up quite good. Nothing was ever black and white in your rules. I mean, we knew from the word go, what was allowed and what wasnt. And it was put to us in plain text. It was like having a mother telling her children what to do and what not, but it helped. I think that helped as well.

Even someone from nz has posted it has a slight affect on the economy and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that years of closed borders would have an impact

Why do you think we’re going to have ‘years of closed borders’....?

No one thinks New Zealand’s economy hasn’t suffered, because everyone knows the economy of all countries has suffered. What everyone does know is that New Zealand’s economy will recover quicker because of free movement.

Other comparable countries are europe who are all struggling some with worst cases than uk
Yes i agree nz lock down was right but apart from borders our first lockdown was strict nothing was barely open and we left home for exercise and some workplaces bit many were wfh or furloughed and some like myself lost out jobs in the first lockdown
The nhs coped better than expected in first lockdown too this new strain has had a bigger impact and is spreading faster even thiugh we have measures still
Currently in my area and a large amount of the uk we have no hospitality or non essential shops, online learning for secondary until testing is in schools And worst hit areas no primary
We are advised not to travel and stay home and some of us could mix for one day with family and xmas many chose not to and foe those that did , they took kids out early from school and isolated
But in general most people have followed the rules and its unfair to day otherwise because you have read in a newspaper or on here . When you haven't actually been here

I didn't say you were going to have years if closed borders it was if there was no vaccine etc and numbers elsewhere were not in control

I know nz economy will bounce back as we now have vaccines so an end is in sight hipefully infact i wrote exactly the same thing

Ok so just speculation regarding border closures, I wasn’t sure if I had missed something showing that was NZ plan.

Regarding tourism industry, Australia made up around 40% of visitors to NZ 2019.

Opening only to Australia would massively help that industry, and I imagine record numbers of Australians would travel there as they can’t go to any other country!

nolongersurprised i do not have to provide evidence its there for you to go read

Where? Please provide a link as to where the evidence for your claims that prolonged lockdown means that NZ “can’t have an economy”.

I can’t look up evidence that doesn’t actually exist.