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Kate Hawkesby: It's time for cool heads

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 12 Aug 2020, 9:30am
Photo / NZ Herald

Kate Hawkesby: It's time for cool heads

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Wed, 12 Aug 2020, 9:30am

So we're not in lockdown per se - as many media are alleging, it's Level 3 - which is not a lockdown.

So we need to calm down and try to be cool headed about this.

It's Level 3 and it doesn't start until midday today, and at this stage it's only until Friday.

Fingers and toes crossed it finishes then.

The only difference this time round is we're being asked to wear masks - not compulsory - but they say if you have one, wear it.

Last time we beat it without the masks, but this time we're adding them in.

And speaking of masks, I was sent a photo yesterday, of someone staying in managed isolation at one of the Auckland quarantine Hotels. They were surprised with all this mask talk going on, how few people inside the actual hotel were wearing them.

Inside the lobby, where the photo was taken, there was a barista standing at a coffee machine, with a security guard in front of him waiting for a coffee, alongside a guest waiting for a coffee too. None of them were wearing masks.

If ever there was going to be a risk of community transmission, I would've thought surely that’s it?

I imagine now community testing will have to be markedly ramped up, I wonder if it's why poor old Ashley Bloomfield had to have a test filmed for TV last night, just to show us how easy they are. As he winced and his eyes watered with tears running down his cheeks as he reassured us it was painless.

But we have to keep things in perspective here. This is just 4 cases, at this stage, all in one family, all isolating, all their contacts - close and casual - also isolating, and that's not hard to contact trace - one family. Of their two workplaces, neither was customer facing apparently, and one's already been shut down.

But we are not - in lockdown.

The PM said last night that moving back into lockdown was a potential scenario, and that there'll be daily updates again.

That's something to look forward to isn't it?

But we're not in lockdown yet, let's not get ahead of ourselves, let's not jinx it, let's not alarm everyone unnecessarily.

Level 3, and not until midday today, and finishing Friday - fingers crossed.

And for all the people accusing Judith Collins of politicising this.. you've got to be joking.

No one has politicised Covid more than this government.

Indeed the PM was happy to even call this a 'Covid election'.

So proud of their handling of it, they felt they didn't even need to release policy.

But while they've been very happy to bask in all the successes of the Covid response.. and without taking anything away from them on that front.. they must now also be prepared to take some accountability for the failures.

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