Covid-19 vaccination drive-thru centre in Auckland / Photo / Brett Phibbs
Covid-19 vaccination drive-thru centre in Auckland / Photo / Brett Phibbs
Opinion
OPINION:
It may surprise you to know that I was a difficult teenager - dynamite.
My biggest fear was being grounded during the school holidays. The threat of that was a trusty tool in my parents' box. After all, being grounded sucks.
This is how Aucklanders must feel as the school holidays dawn. Grounded at home. Grounded from leaving the city. After seven weeks of lockdown, Auckland is ground down. Businesses are buckling and people are brassed off. Aucklanders need a break from level 3.
If you've been following the daily case count over the past 30 days, the ticker has been stubbornly averaging around 20 cases a day. The outbreak hasn't got substantially worse or better. Elimination is an illusion. When is the Government going to stop the denial and publicly admit they are switching to active suppression?
Waikato will have put the wind up the Beehive. They'll now be spooked about lowering Auckland alert to level 2. But for the sake of the wider city, even if it's a hairy-chested level 2 or 2.5, drop it they should.
The Ministry of Health should man up and go hard out at Delta's epicentre, the seven suburbs of interest that continue to spawn cases, including transitional housing. We need mandatory mass-testing, saliva-based, in a hyper-local crackdown to lasso this virus where it is seeding and spreading. Target those suburbs with elevated restrictions and let wider Auckland have a half-decent staycation, supporting and resuscitating local businesses, in level 2.
Auckland's iron ring, the boundary, is utterly dysfunctional. Workers should only be allowed to cross it if they're fully vaccinated and pass a negative test, whether you're on the road or jumping on a plane.
Beyond Auckland, many regions are agitating for level 1.
The most compelling case is the South Island, which hasn't clocked a Covid case for 332 days. Cup and Show Week will soon be trashed if the South stays stranded in level 2. Let them off the leash. Loosen the noose.
But it is Auckland that really needs a breather. You've suffered and sacrificed, long enough.
