Editorial: Covid 19 coronavirus lockdown - hunker down and wait it out

People wear face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus in Taipei, Taiwan. Masks have become a key weapon in the fight against the virus overseas. Photo / AP

EDITORIAL:

Growing frustration with lockdown restrictions, especially during this second, unwanted outbreak in Auckland, is understandable.

People are generally willing to comply with unusual temporary rules when they see the threat as warranted and that the authorities are holding up their end of the bargain to ensure the public's safety.

For most people in the city, that is probably still the case. But the consensus that people bought into earlier this year has frayed.

For a section of the community, official fumbles over border testing and isolation, and the infection flare-up in the community, have eroded trust in authorities' competency and raised doubts about the Government's messaging.

The small weekend anti-lockdown march in Auckland, where people were mostly mask-less, could be a sign of further discontent to come.

Cabinet will meet today to decide whether to change the alert levels for the city and the rest of the country. If Auckland remained in level 3, workplaces, schools, bars, cafes and other small businesses would stay closed.

A drop from level 3 to 2 in Auckland later this week will depend upon the latest health information about the cluster and any other cases.

The lockdown and actions to move infected people into isolation have no doubt helped to limit the spread and aid the impressive detective work to trace cases.

But with the second outbreak becoming a reality - although on a far smaller and less complex scale than the first - it is no longer just a theory or speculation for operators of small businesses to wonder how many more of these can they handle.

Politically the Government all along has had a difficult job working out when and where to apply carrot and stick measures to ensure cooperation and compliance. Judgements and assessments have had to be made on the run in what has been a complex crisis.

The Government has at least shown that it can learn from, respond and adapt to problems, but a lot of damage can be inflicted while officials play catch-up. Prevention with the goal of reducing the health risk to the public has to be the top priority.

With a bit of distance, it all looks clearer that a special focus on border oversight and with the toughest rules saved for entry points should have been obvious much earlier. Sometimes simple priorities can get lost in nuance.

A border tsar tasked with ensuring that the operation was run securely and according to the Government's stated strategy could have made a difference. National's idea for a border agency is a simple concept but sometimes clearly defined lines are what's required.

The head of the World Health Organisation Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the weekend he hopes the pandemic will be over in less than two years.

"Our situation now with more technology, of course with more connectiveness, the virus has a better chance of spreading, it can move fast. At the same time we have the technology and knowledge to stop it."

Here, we really do not want to import the ongoing problems and higher rates of virus spread seen overseas. We still have to hunker down and wait it out.