Letters to the editor: Stick to the plan and cautious optimism

Aerial image of Mount Maunganui and area. Photo / File

Many are frustrated with the lockdown, and we are all missing the contact we normally have with our friends and colleagues and the work we normally do.

But the Bay of Plenty Times highlights how important it is we stick to self-isolation for the full four weeks.

If we all stick to the plan and the rules, we can get out of this lockdown.

Being half way through this self-isolation already, we are getting there.

This morning's paper (April 7) highlights how devastating this crisis is for our building workforce and the consequences for families and our need for houses.

The last thing we need is for this crisis to continue beyond the designated timeline.

There is horror for our shopkeepers too with products on shelves which have to be sold and everything shut. Men and women are ready to get to work and don't want this agony to continue, and the remedy remains in our very well washed hands.

The call is for everyone to self-isolate properly and the longer this goes on the faster our standard of living will plummet.

Stay safe and self-isolate and be kind to each other.

Margaret Murray-Benge
Bethlehem

Cautious optimism

There is cautious optimism from the scientists that NZ is winning the war against Covid-19.

I watched Prime Minister Jacinda Adern on Tuesday doing her television presentation, alongside the Director General of Health.

What a performance.

At question time she pre-empted the journalists by jumping straight into the David Clark debacle.

In my view, the journalists flogged it to death.

She was all over the big picture with so many facts and figures at her fingertips.

Our Government is listening to the scientists and basing its decisions on facts and science-based evidence.

Earlier that morning I watched Trump on Al Jazeera. No contest.

If he's not promoting unproven drugs then he's name dropping and telling us he's best friends with some world leader or other.

I know who I want to be running our country.

I hope Adern doesn't bow to pressure and lift the lockdown too soon. The medical professionals are saying until a vaccine is available the virus can only be managed - which means in our case, closing the borders.

So although we will come out of this with a damaged economy I hope with time we can build a brave new world.

(Abridged)

Lesley Haddon
Rotorua