I am horrified at how political this has become in America.

Time to go talk to Elon Musk. Sounds like he is the only one finding ways to buy these things from overseas markets.

So I did some digging. We get about 450,000 Chinese tourists each year, which is about 10% of the population of NZ. Does Italy get 6 million Chinese tourists a year? That would be an equivalent percent of population compared to NZ. However, we locked the border to mainland China on February 2nd. So I'm not convinced Dr. Fauci is right. I think NZ acted faster than Italy.

She is 39

People are starting to worry about Jacinda. Since coming into office, she has had to deal with 1) having a baby 2) The Christchurch mass shootings 3) A volcanic eruption 4) A pandemic That is a lot to handle in 2.5 years. She is looking kind of haggard.

The worst hit will be India. 😞

There is some indication that NZ can actually *eradicate* the virus in the next 6 weeks. But at that point I am not clear what we do. The world gets herd immunity (and lots of people die) and we do what? Stay in our bubble and wait for a vaccine that may or may not happen? Keep the borders shut for how long? Or let the population get it very very slowly -- like over 3 years so we don't overwhelm the system? And if so, how do we manage that? In and out of self-isolation as we allow some people to get it over time? I'm just not clear on the longer term plan.

No delivery services. Even online grocery shopping in drying up because they can't find people willing to do the job. They stay home and stay safe and get a wage subsidy. The clerks at the grocery stores now are required to have a very high plexiglass shield between them and the customers. Any cash purchases must be a self check out as clerks are not allowed to touch money. All the stock boys have gloves and welder's helmets that completely cover their faces. Only 100 people are allowed in a typical grocery store at any one time and only 1 person per family can shop. Pharmacies are only allowing 1 person in the store at a time and the clerk at our store had a proper mask. The buses are running on a reduced schedule for essential workers and for those who can't otherwise get to their grocery store. The bus drivers I have seen have masks. We have no online services and we have no restaurants in operation right now. We have no domestic flights or intercity travel allowed. No driving is allowed unless it is to your local store. I have actually just found out that NZ is a producer of masks!

I'm glad to hear that. Here in NZ, we have fewer low end people working because there is no online shopping (except groceries although even that has been cut by some stores) and there are no restaurants operating. Without these 2 industries, there are no chefs, wait-staff, Amazon store workers, or delivery people out and about. All people staying home because of job cuts are getting about $500/week in wage subsidy. People who are working from home do not. It is just interesting to see how the two governments are doing things differently.

His self isolation is over TODAY! But of course now the entire country is in self-isolation. Haha. So here in NZ, we can only shop at our local grocery store and pharmacy, and we can go for walks in our local area. We are not allowed to drive except to the local grocery store and pharmacy. There is NO carry out food of any sort available, there is also no online shopping of any sort except groceries because all transport is for essential services only. So we are hunkering down in a 600sq foot apartment with three rooms with 2 teens and 2 parents working from home and heading into winter. Good thing we like each other!

I am starting to think that only upper and middle class people in America are going into lockdown. There are a ton of poorly paid workers serving all the people in isolation. DH was just talking to his mom on the phone, and she said that in Ohio she can still order home delivery from restaurants and stuff from Amazon. So you have chefs, delivery people, amazon warehouse people, and grocery store check out staff still working and serving the people who have the means to stay at home and avoid exposure. I feel really yucky about this.

I think it is because NY is so international. Of the 481 cases NZ currently has, it looks like about 450 are from international travelers. Even after we closed the borders to all visitors, we still have gotten about 400 cases from the kiwis returning. And we closed the borders with about 20 cases. NY has simply had a ton of people coming in from overseas, not tested, not self-isolated, mixing, and spreading it. I think it would have been politically impossible to close all International flights down when you had 40 known cases with none in the hospital (NYC is 8million to NZ 4 million population, so I doubled the numbers). And to close ALL domestic flights and go into lockdown, when you had 500 cases and two in the hospital with none in ICU (double our numbers again).

Has anyone posted this? Interesting take on the data. This chart is 3 days old, but he also has a live one where you can compare countries.

As for Global Trade, there are 2 things in the NZ news 1) the NZ government have just restricted all prescriptions to 1 month only. They have said that we are a food exporter so there is plenty of food, but we are a drug importer so they have decided to control distribution. NOT ration (yet) but they are concerned that they will not be able to bring drugs in and they don't want people hoarding prescriptions in their homes. 2) The docks are getting full with containers that cannot be unloaded to closed businesses. By Friday, there will be no place to bring in goods. In addition, they have to actually empty the containers of goods that no one is currently buying (non-essential businesses are required to close), because they need the containers to ship goods out.

has anyone posted about the teddy bear hunt for little kids while in lockdown? https://www.google.com/search?q=teddy+bear+hunt+photos&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjH6LzK-bboAhWpLLcAHdAACVIQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=teddy+bear+hunt+photos&gs_l=img.3..35i39l2.6089.6680..7250...0.0..0.306.879.0j2j1j1......0....1..gws-wiz-img.fd83icstahI&ei=JgB8Xse9LanZ3LUP0IGkkAU&bih=482&biw=1138&rlz=1CAIUCU_enNZ871&safe=active

Photos of NZ in day 1 of a true lockdown. https://www.google.com/search?q=nz+empty+streets+lockdown+photos&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwifpJm5-LboAhXb2XMBHTABDBcQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=nz+empty+streets+lockdown+photos&gs_l=img.3...5030.10856..10982...0.0..0.345.5623.0j5j17j2......0....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i3j0i7i30.LuASgxzyC18&ei=9v57Xp_RBNuzz7sPsIKwuAE&bih=482&biw=1138&rlz=1CAIUCU_enNZ871&safe=active

We have started going to a grocery store in the middle of the city that has no parking. People there must be local city dwellers and appear to be only shopping for 1 or 2 days as they are carrying a bag or 2 max. As we approached the store around 11am, we saw a woman with TP under her arm, which made me think of this thread! May you all learn how to sew 'family cloth', and after washing it, hang it in the sun for some UV sterilizing!!!

They are also now putting all international travellers in quarantine (not self-isolation). Jacinda said they couldn't do it before because there were just too many (like 100,000, and now only expecting 10K more) so if they tried to quarantine 100K people, they were likely to end up with the virus spreading through quarantine camps like on a cruise ship. So they made the choice to go with self isolation for the past 2 weeks for all international travellers. Starting tonight that stops, and all travellers will be quarantined in hotels unless they actually don't have symptoms and live in the city they landed in, then they are allowed to self-isolate with government monitoring for compliance.

We are at 4 confirmed cases of community transmission out of 4.5 million, and we are testing. The other 201 cases are travellers who have arrived on international flights in the past 2 weeks and have been put in self-isolation and contact traced. Crossing fingers that the lockdown is in time. Jacinda warned us that we are likely to see 2000+ cases during the month long lockdown. But with the hoards of people in to help with community tracing, we are hoping to nip it in the bud. Everyone I have talked to is taking the lockdown very seriously. Keep in mind, when they said only essential businesses, that means that they have closed all internet purchasing. If you did not buy it today, all you can buy is food, drugs, and fuel. There is nothing else open either in person or online.

I posted in the other thread that now that parliament has adjourned, they set up a committee led by the opposition party to keep an eye on the Government now that it has been given extra powers.

Government here is considering Universal Basic Income during the crisis, but right now is just supporting those that have lost their jobs. Rents are frozen, evictions banned, and a 6 month mortgage holidays must be allowed if requested. Full Lockdown in 4 hours, with police and Army to enforce.

kiwik, did you get the emergency activation on your phone? I was pretty impressed that even my ds home from MIT with an American phone number got the call while he was hiking in the bush behind our house. I saw 92% approval of the total lockdown. My neighbor said that before parliament adjourned that they made a committee headed by the opposition party to monitor the government with all these extra powers. I'm impressed with that also.

"Italy has banned any movement inside the country and closed all non-essential businesses as it desperately seeks to stem the spread of coronavirus following a horror weekend in which more than 1,400 people died." We are doing this *now*, with a community spread of 2 people. Am I understanding correctly, that Italy is blocking domestic travel only now?!?!?

The leader of the opposition party has called for a halt on all election politicking. They will completely back the ruling party and our PM, Jacinda.

I think we are all pleased. People were thinking in the past 2 days that it was time. We want to be Singapore not Italy. We have been testing, and the community spread is possibly 2 people. I think we are in time. AirNZ is putting on extra flights to get everyone home, and then there will be NO domestic travel allowed. They will be closing the roads and airports.