Can someone explain to me New Zealand?

[idontknow54789]

Sorry for the ignorance/naivety here but can someone explain to me the reasonings behind such extreme lockdown measures in NZ? At the beginning of the pandemic they're approach was fully accepted but surely now with vaccines and omnicrom being a 'milder' form of covid they have to start setting sense? Is it about the health system? I understand there's a severe lack of ICU beds but is locking down so much really better for health? Can anyone explain it to me please?

Did you wear a mask in the house though household transmission is high

I get your seatbelt but you see that it isn’t instant - people stop as soon as they can

As I said a mask mandate has changed where I am in holiday and literally the next day people stopped wearing them. Ideally yes people would but it simply isn’t going to happen in the real world.

Seat belts you can see the damage - it’s visual you don’t get that with masks

I do agree with ventilation though can’t stand a stuffy house

I guess I am saying people will people

Your last post has got me thinking Quartz

I suppose it would take a (very welcome, imo) cultural shift to get people to keep on mask wearing in the west.

Japan never stopped (when necessary, eg. when unwell to prevent spread to others) after the 1918/19 flu pandemic. But, from what Japanese friends tell me, although that's when it really took off there is an older tradition going back further. An interesting history actually (with some beautiful masks).

Perhaps, like seat belts, at least some people will gradually accept it as the norm. I was quite young but vaguely remember a bit of a fuss about freedom when seat belts were mandated here.

(I didn't need to mask indoors when I was ill, as it was all of us but we already had a HEPA filter from before the pandemic).

@Tealightsandd But surely you masked indoors to reduce the viral load for all of you, to reduce the likelihood of long covid?

No?

There is cheap housing in NZ, but not near desirable places with lively economies . Housing in Auckland in particular is overpriced because it’s where the work is , has a good climate and lots of beaches.
You can find cheap housing in the middle of nowhere with no infrastructure and areas of poverty . It’s like housing in undesirable areas of the north of England is cheap but not in the parts where people who want to develop their careers have to live.

I live in Japan. Ever-masking was not the norm before the pandemic, just something that people did if they had a cold and were going out, and some people wore masks in crowded trains in flu season, and/or if they had allergies in allergy season. I hope ever-masking does NOT become a tiresome new norm here, for a whole lot of reasons.

Back to NZ: amazingly low death stats with the current wave, and what a sad contrast to Hong Kong. NZ did a very good job of vaccinating and boostering its population, esp the old folks, and it really really shows. Vaccines work, everyone!

(As for masks, sorry, Tea, but masks appear to be making literally fuck all difference in Hong Kong. Masks plastered to every face nonstop. Highest COVID death rate per million in the world. In fact, I believe it's similar to the UK's January 2021 peak right now.)

I'm reflecting on this thread after the events of the last few weeks.

How are the kiwi's feeling now?

Pretty pleased with themselves, probably. A well vaccinated country has managed the transition without too much fallout. I still think it would have made sense to have opened up sooner, but all in all, I think the Kiwis will feel satisfied with their country's pandemic response--and there seems to be no danger of becoming a hermit kingdom long term, as was mooted at one point.

NZ property prices are, I hear, the biggest source of domestic contention right now. No idea why they have risen so much.

Property seems to be going crazy everywhere. I moved a year and a half ago, early in the pandemic, and we sold our house for a good deal more than we'd have thought. A house I say today sold in the same neighbourhood for over $200,000 Canadian more than the asking price - a little bungalow for over half a million dollars.

And I'm hearing the same from my American and UK friends.

Yes we seem to be weathering the storm not too badly here in NZ. I agree that this is largely due to our high vaccination rates. It's personally been tough for me psychologically to adjust to having covid widespread in our community, particularly with it ripping through our kids' schools. I'm amazed we haven't caught it yet through our kids bringing it home. I guess it's only a matter of time but we're being as careful as we can and I'll be very pleasantly surprised if we manage to ride through this wave without catching it. Where I live seems to be peaking right now in terms of case numbers and our hospital is coping ok. If if gets no worse than this I think we can count ourselves lucky. Great news today about our borders reopening too!

I agree cousinit. I've found it pretty stressful too, particularly when you add the Ukraine situation into the mix.

I'm cautiously optimistic we're going to come through with a minimal death toll right now. My worry is the next variant.

uk.yahoo.com/news/zealand-once-covid-free-tops-030601937.html

New Zealand has recorded more than 1m cases of Covid-19, after spending the first 18 months of the pandemic largely free of the virus.

The milestone reflects a stark change in New Zealand’s pandemic experience, with more than 986,000 of those cases hitting in the months since the start of 2022.

How many people in hospital?
how many in ICU?

’ cases ‘ mean very little.

Yeah, I think so far the numbers massively vindicate the NZ government's choice of response. Cases have surged massively (I would say at least half the people I know have now had it – not me or anyone in my family, but we're very vigilant because I'm immune-suppressed and my father is extremely vulnerable) but the deaths by proportion are super low compared to everywhere else.

If you look at Worldometer, NZ currently ranks 62nd for case numbers and 134th for deaths. Most of the countries with lower deaths only rank that way because of poor reporting or having minuscule populations.