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Now, this morning's announcement from the Prime Minister. Â
We had a bit of a debate yesterday afternoon about whether to take this live or not — the last thing we all want to listen to is a party political broadcast and a whole lot of flannel about how well the Government's done in rolling out vaccinations and kia kaha Auckland — great mahi coming off the motu. Â
We thought we might just edit it so you got the actual news rather than the self-congratulation and self-justifications. Â
But so many people's livelihoods — hell, their lives — depend on what kind of plan this government has come up with that we'll take the PM and Grant Robertson live from Parliament once they get there — and cut it off when they get to Jessica, then Tova. Â
I'm already getting a lot of emails and texts from people who are desperate — who are seeing this announcement as their last hope and by crikey, I hope she delivers. Â
She simply has to in terms of an end date and in terms of support for businesses that have been brought to their knees by this extended lockdown. Â
I don't have much hope honestly — I've been locked down into a kind of insensate torpor. Â
But I would love to be pleasantly surprised. We won't do the reckons beforehand — let's just wait and see what if anything the government comes up with and react to that — so for the first hour, I'd love to talk about the decision made by Radius Care a retirement village chain. Â
They have made the most excellent decision to allow visitors back for the mental health of their residents, despite Ministry of Health guidelines recommending against visitors in Level 3. Â
It's funny — on Tuesday, I asked Helen to ring around a few retirement villages to see if they would be willing to go against the advice of the Ministry given the level of hurt so many people were feeling. Â
She tried a couple and then went to the Retirement Village Association and they said they would not go against guidelines and blow me down — the next day founder and Chairman of Radius Brien Cree announced the decision. Â
As long as people are double vaccinated and can show they've had a negative test people will be allowed in. Brien Cree says Covid is here and we're just going to have to learn to live with it.
I cannot applaud this man more. He knows his business, he knows his people, he knows he can take a calculated risk and he knows the cure can't be worse than the disease. Â
Double-vaxxed residents are getting shingles from the stress of being kept apart from their double-vaxxed loved ones. Â
They can manage visitors and they perhaps more than any other sector understand quality of life trumps existing. I fervently hope more people follow suit.
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