There are 76 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says. 63 have now recovered. There are 589 total cases now.
COMMENT:
It seems we're a nation of narks. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had to make the bizarre request yesterday for people to stop calling 111 to report people breaching the lockdown.
Yes it's revealed a disturbing desire to tell on our next door neighbours, but it obviously means that toomany people aren't taking this seriously enough.
The announcement of the first person to lose their life due to Covid-19 will probably shake that attitude. It's a tragedy, and intellectually we all knew it was coming, but it's still a sad event to hear about.
Although this will come as sobering news to many, right now there's a sense of novelty to everyone being locked inside their house. Oh ho ho there's a queue for the supermarket! Oh look, my elderly parents have forwarded me another zany video!
While that attitude is in place we'll keep our goodwill towards the Government, but that won't last forever - and when it does evaporate, the goodwill could turn nasty very quickly.
So far the Government's performance has been very good. Well really it's been the Jacinda and Grant Robertson show. Both of them have performed exceptionally.
They are both flying blind into a situation that no other New Zealand leaders have ever faced and at the moment people are relatively happy.
Things will change.
There will almost certainly be more deaths. There will definitely be more cases. And those case numbers are likely to continue to climb as people continue to be stuck at home. And we may become restless and start to wonder if it was worth being stuck at home, with our toddlers who are obsessed with The Wiggles and don't mind hearing the same song for the 8000th time.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media during a press conference at Parliament. Photo / Getty
I understand people in the Government are now starting to turn their minds to things beyond the immediate health crisis. Some are wondering how frontline government services can better help people stuck in their homes.
One idea gaining traction is to have the Ministry of Education start providing resources to people at home for either adult education or for parents to entertain their children, instead of just providing these for teachers to teach online.
There will need to be more and Government could step in. For example NZ On Air could provide content to all our broadcasters free of charge.
But the private sector could also step up. Prior to lockdown there were an awful lot of private sector folk who thought they knew best about what the government should be doing in response to the pandemic. Since the country went into lockdown they've been a lot quieter.
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Entertainment for bored house-bound people is just one thing on the impossible laundry list of concerns this country faces, and it'll only be a shorter term problem compared to the disaster that is going to be inflicted on jobs and people's bank balances. It doesn't feel real yet, probably because we're all in our houses. But it looks like we're in for a world of economic hurt, far beyond anything that we've experienced in our lifetimes.
So far Finance Minister Grant Robertson seems to have made good decisions. Especially compared to other countries. The jobless numbers in the United States and Australia look dire. But we are also facing immediate challenges. Don't be surprised to see big redundancy announcements start to come out.
It's remarkable in these situations how former die-hard believers in the free market suddenly become fans of government intervention. Those who previously had a problem with the government increasing benefits to 'dole bludging bums' are now all for the governments bailing out struggling businesses and industries. Why not both?
If there was an election tomorrow, Labour would sweep to power. If there was one in two weeks, Labour would still probably win but by a smaller margin. Six months and it could be anyone's game. But who even knows if we'll get an election anytime soon. Now back to telling on your neighbours.
