Appointment TV
Apr. 27th, 2020 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
msconductI haven't watched live TV in decades, but since our lockdown started five weeks ago the daily Covid-19 briefing has been must-see TV for me and most New Zealanders. Lucky for us they haven't been like the car-crash Trump pressers, just the facts about how many cases, how many recoveries, how many deaths, and what was going to happen next. It's amazing how dependent I came to be on these: when they missed a Saturday I felt completely adrift.
Now, after five weeks at Alert Level 4, we're shifting to Alert Level 3. The official line is that we've eliminated the virus, although that doesn't mean there's no Covid-19 left in the country. Apparently "elimination doesn't mean zero cases", in response to which I can only urge them to look "elimination" up in the dictionary. However, new cases have been in single figures all week and the new cases have all been linked to known clusters. There has been a lot of random testing which has turned up zero community transmission, which obviously is a very big deal.
So now we shift to a lower alert level. (Why don't other countries have an alert level system? There seems to be so much confusion overseas about what people are and aren't allowed to do...) It won't make much difference to me, as I will still be stuck inside, but people are allowed to return to work if it's safe and they can't work from home, and food places and shops will be able to open, albeit for home delivery only. The idea of this is that our social lives are still stuck in aspic to reduce the chance of a resurgence, but the economy gets a fighting chance to grind into action. This is the real acid test, and it's going to be a nail-biter seeing what happens to the numbers. At present we've kept them down to 1,122 confirmed cases and 19 deaths. After one of the strictest lockdowns in the world and the wrecking of our economy and tourist industry, we really, really don't want all that to have been for nothing. Sadly, I won't be able to find out from the daily briefing, as under Alert Level 3 they're stopping. What am I going to do at 1 pm every day now?
Now, after five weeks at Alert Level 4, we're shifting to Alert Level 3. The official line is that we've eliminated the virus, although that doesn't mean there's no Covid-19 left in the country. Apparently "elimination doesn't mean zero cases", in response to which I can only urge them to look "elimination" up in the dictionary. However, new cases have been in single figures all week and the new cases have all been linked to known clusters. There has been a lot of random testing which has turned up zero community transmission, which obviously is a very big deal.
So now we shift to a lower alert level. (Why don't other countries have an alert level system? There seems to be so much confusion overseas about what people are and aren't allowed to do...) It won't make much difference to me, as I will still be stuck inside, but people are allowed to return to work if it's safe and they can't work from home, and food places and shops will be able to open, albeit for home delivery only. The idea of this is that our social lives are still stuck in aspic to reduce the chance of a resurgence, but the economy gets a fighting chance to grind into action. This is the real acid test, and it's going to be a nail-biter seeing what happens to the numbers. At present we've kept them down to 1,122 confirmed cases and 19 deaths. After one of the strictest lockdowns in the world and the wrecking of our economy and tourist industry, we really, really don't want all that to have been for nothing. Sadly, I won't be able to find out from the daily briefing, as under Alert Level 3 they're stopping. What am I going to do at 1 pm every day now?
