Is the government preparing is for a New Zealand scenario?

[lockdownbreakdown]

Does anyone else think we are going to be locked down until the majority are vaccinated and then the borders are going to be closed indefinitely to prevent new strains? I definitely get this vibe from all the stuff leaked in the press. It seems to be the only way we can stop new variant from ruining the vaccination programme as we cant vaccinate the kids if we let in new strains from abroad we will be going back into lockdown indefinitely. Thoughts?

So to do a ‘New Zealand’ strategy we would have had to close the borders in Jan. As that was when the virus arrived here. Despite the WHO saying closing the borders would be ineffective.

Lucky old New Zealand. They had time to react and a population of half that of London.

What happened in Aus and NZ then? Did the electricity ‘go off’ there when they closed all borders?

This is interesting, actually.

Aus gets most electricity from coal.
NZ from renewables.
UK from (any guesses?)....... oil & gas. We rely on oil/gas platform engineers, many of whom are EU residents.

A lot of the Heathrow terminal passengers right now are in transit.

Part of HK just went into strict lockdown.

I can't stand the NZ comparison, about 7 people living in the arse end of nowhere in a final destination place, it's lovely, I've been there, but to compare with the UK is just laughable.

@Onlinedilema

No. Have you seen the pictures of Heathrow? People are still travelling abroad. Utterly ridiculous. Women fined for travelling 5 miles to exercise and yet stupid, selfish people allowed to go on an areoplane. No excuse what so ever. It's just selfish and this government allow it. Johnson himself could not validate the travel arrangements still allowed. It is only because he was challenged by Yvette Cooper that he has had to be seen to be doing something. Let's face it it isn't 90 year old Doris who is pissing about in planes picking up the virus from abroad, infecting Lord knows how many others on the plane and then bringing it back to the UK is it. Half of these fuckwits are probably anti vaxers anyway so will carry on infecting others.

I’ve no sympathy though I saw the footage of Heathrow I don’t know how it was allowed to be aired and then to speak on the lack of social distance

If they wanted to social distance why are planes allowed to be filled?

I don’t blame the travellers.

@jasjas1973

Exactly *@PrincessNutNuts* but so many are prepared to forgive our govt whatever they do.

As for essential workers involved in critical infrastructure? well, the countries that have coped far better than the uk and many others, have managed just fine.

Some people are so negative and defeatist.

Countries whose covid death toll for the whole pandemic is less than ours yesterday, have managed, so we can too.

@nolongersurprised

What will happen when you open up to international travellers? There’ll be no national immunity, vaccines aren’t 100% effective.

Will Australia and NZ shut themselves off forever?
One case and you are back to square one! I wonder what the long term plan is for a virus that is with us forever?

covid infections surging in Tokyo.

oh look, Japan's strategy called crap after all, these criticisms don't sound familiar, do they?

"Japan's response is too slow and confusing, which reflects the lack of leadership and strategy. On one hand they encouraged domestic travel and eating out, on the other they just asked people to take caution," said Kenji Shibuya, director of the Institute for Population Health at King's College London. "The government is basically asking people voluntarily to behave properly, but does not do more than that."

South Korea " government is described as having “sleepwalked” its way into the third wave, with critics accusing it of complacency and a failure to secure enough hospital beds."

Unemployment at 10yr high, too.

Not in a billion years, and in the very unlikely event they tried (many months too late), there are too many thickos and bolshie twats here so it wouldn't work.

@Twentyweektraining

I can't stand the NZ comparison, about 7 people living in the arse end of nowhere in a final destination place, it's lovely, I've been there, but to compare with the UK is just laughable.

Try South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan or Singapore then.

Or Norway, Denmark or Finland.

193 out of 195 countries have handled covid better than the U.K., so take your pick.

All but 16 countries on earth have had fewer covid deaths EVER than we're having this month.

@lljkk

South Korea " government is described as having “sleepwalked” its way into the third wave, with critics accusing it of complacency and a failure to secure enough hospital beds."

Unemployment at 10yr high, too.

Get back to me when they've let 100,000 of their citizens die.

It certainly does seem like the government are testing the waters in talking about stricter international travel restrictions, quarantine hotels etc.

Some experts have been urging them to do this since March. But better late than never. They are really worried about the new variants.

Short term pain for long term gain should always have been the strategy.

I knew the UK was screwed back in March 2020 when Boris was visiting hospitals, shaking hands.

He did not take this serious, even though China was in a bad way by then.

You stood no chance from that point.

We are lucky in Australia as our houses and lifestyles are different to the UK, so spending time at home wasn't such a stretch, our longest lockdown was over our winter and we're usually ok to hibernate somewhat.

We've been told our international borders will likely be closed for 2021 also, but our day to day life is pretty much back to normal apart from a year on we are still working from home.

I feel for my dh who can't visit home but he's a strong supporter of the closed borders.

They do seem really worried about the new strains. There’s been a telling change of language and tone of late. I wonder if they were expecting the new strains to get weaker and weaker even if they were more infectious and this isn’t the case - as they were saying the new UK variant has shown a slightly higher mortality rate. Although the media have been trying to play this down today I noticed.

@ReefTeeth but how long is that sustainable for? If you open borders in 2022 Covid isn’t magically going to have gone away. Even if we all get the vaccines we’ve been told this isn’t a cure or a magic bullet. It will only take a few people travelling in with it or a new strain that isn’t picked up until they’re mingling and then you’re back to square one

Yes I'm watching the messaging re the new strains very closely. They are taking it seriously.

@MooseFlake agree. I’m glad of this but also more scared that I’ve been throughout the whole pandemic. I think we are going to see more and more new strains crop up and although I was expecting this, I was expecting the getting weaker theory. The fact that this doesn’t seem to be the case... well it’s worrying to say the least

I am concerned about new strains

Not so much recent news but vaccine escape possibility

I think we are being prepped for the news that the vaccines are no match for mutations. I just have a gut feeling because the last few weeks feel like a rinse repeat of 2020 only this time we’re Wuhan.

If no one went to work in New Zealand for 7 weeks who looked after all your care homes residents? GP services provided? What about water supply? Were there any fires needing to be put out? Emergency vet care? People clearly did go to work in your lockdown. Just like key workers did over here in March.

Obviously those who were needed to keep the country running worked - and you know perfectly well the poster didn't mean every single person stayed home. However, if you were not one of a few key industries then you didn't go to work - whether it was possible to work from home or not. There were no takeaways and at the very beginning no online shopping at all - that was then relaxed to essential goods only. Supermarkets/dairies, pharmacies and rural supply stores (with skeleton staff) were the only shops open. One only had to look at the threads on MN about cleaners, gardeners etc. to see that the lockdown in the UK was very much lighter than that in NZ.

@eaglejulesk

If no one went to work in New Zealand for 7 weeks who looked after all your care homes residents? GP services provided? What about water supply? Were there any fires needing to be put out? Emergency vet care? People clearly did go to work in your lockdown. Just like key workers did over here in March.

Obviously those who were needed to keep the country running worked - and you know perfectly well the poster didn't mean every single person stayed home. However, if you were not one of a few key industries then you didn't go to work - whether it was possible to work from home or not. There were no takeaways and at the very beginning no online shopping at all - that was then relaxed to essential goods only. Supermarkets/dairies, pharmacies and rural supply stores (with skeleton staff) were the only shops open. One only had to look at the threads on MN about cleaners, gardeners etc. to see that the lockdown in the UK was very much lighter than that in NZ.

But if there was no online shopping at all, how did you a get food and medicines? We’re supermarkets open? Did everyone have to travel out to visit the supermarkets? If so, we’re there hour long queues and nothing left on the shelves like there was here? Was there a one in, one out system for entering the supermarket? Was there a one shopper per trolly system? We’re kids allowed to be in the shop with their parents? And no, at the beginning of the first lockdown there were no gardeners or cleaners working. It was the same here- everyone who possibly could work at home did so!!

Will Australia and NZ shut themselves off forever?
One case and you are back to square one! I wonder what the long term plan is for a virus that is with us forever?

But that’s why people in Australia will be vaccinated. And there may well be the onus on travellers to be as well. It won’t be “square one”, it’ll be a less vulnerable population.

There’s no rush, we can wait and vaccinate with the optimal vaccines at the recommended time frames.

There will be cases, but we’ve an intact health system that will cope. It’s not backlogged from nearly a year of only focusing on Covid, everything is working as usual. Plus, public health have really stepped up during this. They are doing a good job already keeping track of those returned travellers who come into the country either positive tests. That “one case” coming in happens every day but is being controlled with compulsory quarantining. There is regular sewage testing to monitor for any sub clinical community spread. There’s a whole heap of dynamic effort to ensure we stay on top of things, including mini outbreaks.

If vaccines work then we won’t have 1000/day deaths with a vaccinated population. If the vaccines don’t work the U.K. is in deep shit, aren’t they?

To reiterate as well : we don’t feel “shut off”. We’ve just been at the beach for nippers. 100s of kids on the beach, on the boards, swimming. Beach cafes and restaurants are open and busy.

Essentially the U.K. has opted for open borders and local lock downs, Australia has done the opposite. To me, feeling “shut off” would be if my day-to-day life was restricted.