6 ms·

New Zealand Declares State of Emergency [video]

65 points by partingshots 7y ago

boznz 7y ago
we also did this for the big earthquakes, just gives government power to shut down travel and requisition resources if required. NZ is at level 4 lock down for 4weeks minimum and from the reaction of most of my circle 100% of the people approve of the government action.
- radiorental 7y ago
  > the reaction of most of my circle 100% of the people approve of the government action. It helps that you have a leader that articulates the scale of the problem and is clear about what measures are being put in place to deal with the situation both tactically and strategically. I don't want to politicize the conversation, HN is not the place for that, but it's striking how the different management styles in say NZ & IRL differ from the UK & US and how that is helping people deal with the crisis. In the US for example, individual Governors (aka Team Leads) are taking up the slack where the CEO is not equipped to deal with the scale of the problem. But fundamentally in a pandemic (aka extrinsic force) what counts is trust in leadership, what Ms Arden is demonstrating. Good luck, stay safe.
  - tonyedgecombe 7y ago
    I wouldn't group the UK and US on this, from what I've seen the response is quite different.
    - _bxg1 7y ago
      The strategies are somewhat different, but the failures in leadership are quite similar.
      - tonyedgecombe 7y ago
        What failures are those?
  - rukittenme 7y ago
    It has less to do with management style and more to do with governmental construction. New Zealand is a unitary state. The US is a federal state. There are concrete divisions of power and certain expectations of national power from both the people and the states (which hold separate, independent political power).
    - radiorental 7y ago
      I am not talking about division of responsibilities but more the underlying tone of how to respond to the problem. We are not getting a clear, consistent and decisive message from the top in the UK or the US. How individual state in the US respond is regardless. A fish rots from the head down.
      - tathougies 7y ago
        Trump has told people explicitly to stay inside, avoid work if possible, and instructed state governors to issue lockdowns, promising that they have his support. What more do you want? I'm honestly flabbergasted on this one. Trump's response has been more decisive than any past president in response to a national pandemic. Even during the 1918 flu, we never had such a large federal response.
        macintux 7y ago
        Well, ignoring his intelligence community for months, downplaying it for the first few weeks once he started acknowledging it, and now advocating for a quick end to the lockdowns...
        tathougies 7y ago
        > and now advocating for a quick end to the lockdowns... What rubbish. He's not advocating for it. He just said he hoped for it. Don't we all? > I said earlier today that I hope we can do this by Easter. I think that would be a great thing for our country and we’re all working very hard to make that a reality. We’ll be meeting with a lot of people to see if it can be done. Easter is a very special day for many reasons for me, for a lot of a lot of our friends. That’s a very special day and what a great timeline this would be. Easter as our timeline. What a great timeline that would be. That does not come across as advocating. But hoping. https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-task-force-briefing-transcript-march-24 https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronaviru... > My first priority is always the health and safety of the American people. I want everyone to understand that we are continuing to evaluate the data. When asked how he will decide to reopen the country: Sounds like they will continue the lockdowns if the data warrant it. Shouldn't we hope that all countries evaluate the data? > I think we’ll be looking at a lot of things. We’ll also be looking again at very large portions of our country and I will be guided very much by Dr. Fauci and by Deborah and by some of the other professionals that work with both of you. And we’re going to see what will be. I don't understand why the media doesn't correctly report on these issues. They just really dislike the orange dude
  - clagio 7y ago
    I think NZ did the mistake to not test enough people for too long and not doing enough controls at the borders (which is a relative easy task for a fairly isolated island, with only a bunch of international airports). I'm very happy they decided to move quickly in the last week, and the PM did a very good job giving clear information of what is going to happen and what is expected from everybody. Considering that only 4 months ago I was living in Italy, I feel so lucky I moved my family here before things start to collapse back home..
  - jandrewrogers 7y ago
    In the US, the State Governors are explicitly in charge of this, not the Federal government which has minimal authority in such matters. It is misleading to describe this as "taking up the slack", given that the US government is specifically structured such that it is supposed to work this way.
    - radiorental 7y ago
      You are not wrong with respect to healthcare but leadership comes from the top, more so when this is not a State specific problem. Just listen to the Governor of NY plead for help. State's can chose to ignore the president but if the want help from the Feds (FEMA etc) then your point is moot.
      - tathougies 7y ago
        The feds have explicitly stated they are willing to help, and are sending resources to the states?
        radiorental 7y ago
        The leadership, the 'feds' (FEMA) and the states are three separate entities.
        tathougies 7y ago
        Sorry, I'll rephrase. Trump has explicitly stated he is willing to give money to the states to deal with the problem. And has sent resources (like the navy ships, dod medical stockpiles, and emergency hospitals)
        dhosek 7y ago
        No, he says that he's done things but many of these things (like the navy ships) are far from being launched. Much of what Trump says is not true and a disturbing amount of that is actively harmful.
  - timClicks 7y ago
    What's interesting for public policy wonks like myself is that New Zealand has increasingly adopted a presidential-style executive. The Prime Minister naturally pulls more face time than other Cabinet ministers and the position has attracted even more political gravity over time, esp. in the Key and Adern eras.
    - rodgerd 7y ago
      We've definitely always had strong Premier/Prime Ministerial identities: think Vogel "King Dick", Savage, Muldoon, Lange, Clarke as well as Key and Adern.
  - tathougies 7y ago
    The governors are explicitly in charge of this. The US federal government has no authority to order shelter-in-place. And this makes sense, since the states are as large as most countries. Most states are not anywhere near the level of New York, and while they need a shelter-in-place order eventually, we need to recognize that practically, people can only stand them for X amount of weeks. If you do it too early you risk people flouting the order and continuing to do so once things get bad. The US is more akin to the European Union than a single country, and it's high time people realized this and stopped looking to uncle sam for leadership. During the 1918 flu pandemic, there was no national response. Individual governors and mayors instituted lockdowns as they saw fit, with support from the feds in terms of money.
    - radiorental 7y ago
      The virus doesn't respect state boundaries. While you are not wrong wrt to Fed & State duties - if the leadership is going to take a 'wartime' stance then it needs to message to that effect. The CEO of my company does not tell my team how to deliver product. However, if there's a disconnect between what they're saying and what we're trying to accomplish there is a morale problem.
      - tathougies 7y ago
        > The virus doesn't respect state boundaries. While you are not wrong wrt to Fed & State duties - if the leadership is going to take a 'wartime' stance then it needs to message to that effect. The federal government has been absolutely warlike. Unfortunately, the media reports coming out of the press conferences are completely out of touch and honestly false when compared with what was actually said. With regard to the states not being warlike enough. I don't disagree, but I would have major issues with an American president telling governors what to do. Nevertheless, the administration has taken a very supportive role with regard to governors. Trump has openly praised several governors who have previously called for his own impeachment for their responses to the virus, and even said he wished more governors would follow along (in closing things down, as needed). I don't see how much more warlike trump can get. The governors need to follow suit.
  - reaperducer 7y ago
    In the US for example, individual Governors (aka Team Leads) are taking up the slack where the CEO is not equipped to deal with the scale of the problem. This is by design. The United States is a union of individual states. It is not intended to be top-down. Most of that "federal government over all" was added in recent decades. The system is designed so that states handle problems themselves (which, for example, is why each state has its own National Guard). If the problem gets too big for the states, then the federal government is supposed to step in to help, but only in a supporting role. Whether the feds are fulfilling that supporting role in what is clearly a national crisis (though some of the states aren't ready to admit that yet), is, as you said, beyond the scope of HN.
    - dhosek 7y ago
      This is fantasy thinking about the structure of the US and how the problem can be effectively dealt with.
      - true_religion 7y ago
        The US states are like EU nations. They only give up control of anything that passes their borders (and a few other things like the right to leave the union unilaterally). As the US is much older than the EU, its economy has evolved so effectively everything passes a states border giving the federal government the right to control almost every aspect of life (except things explicitly barred from it). However, the moment the federal government institutes a state by state lockdown, control immediately reverts back to the states since nothing crosses the borders any longer.
    - refurb 7y ago
      Canada is following the same process as the US. The federal government has not instituted a top down approach to lockdown, but is rather letting individual provinces do it. Which makes sense, since there are some big differences between them.
- rodgerd 7y ago
  Yeah there's a handful of Americanized comments on social media ("Muh freedoms!") but generally a lot of approval. I'm glad we seem to be taking our cues from South Korea, Taiwan, etc, about how to deal with this.
  - smoyer 7y ago
    Haha ... then their gonna take muh gunz! As an American who was preparing for this in February, I'm not surprised that the number of cases here has grown given that attitude is represented by probably 25% of the people I know. I'm in a university town and expected more. I'm also pretty dismayed that we fell behind this when we knew it was coming. Officials who heard some of the early briefings knew enough to dump their stocks but didn't argue we should start producing test kits? So for now, we're living the dream in our house ... stay safe everyone!
  - robocat 7y ago
    To the down voters: NZ is strongly influenced by US media - news, entertainment, online. However just as there is strong partisanship between your political parties, many kiwis have a love/hate relationship with the US, or some of it’s policies. So you often see kiwis take the piss (mickey) out of those we perceive as gung-ho supporters of the US, and vice versa. And that support can vary depending on topic. The usual things we laugh at are: your bi-partisan politics (we have MMP), your gun ownership (any gun deaths are front page news here), your lack of support for your poor (healthcare, unemployed, elderly), your media (you all appear like Texans), and your ego (lack of insight about your weaknesses compared with other countries). I love travelling to the US (although I stopped travelling there about 15 years ago when your government started treating arriving tourists like criminals), I like the majority of Americans I met there, and I love much of your individuality that enables your entrepreneurship, amongst other things. Cheers
PopeDotNinja 7y ago
Good luck in NZ. I'm on Day 12 in Spain. I'm passing the time by learning to cook.
nobbis 7y ago
As a Kiwi living in NYC, I'm impressed by the "go hard, go early" approach the NZ government has taken, compared with the delayed response here. NZ also has easily enforceable border control (surrounded by the Pacific ocean) which is already strict (their economy is so reliant on agriculture exports.) They should come out of this better than most.
- worik 7y ago
  Tourism.
  - iso1210 7y ago
    Tourism stopped weeks ago
- _the_inflator 7y ago
  My kiwi friend, a doc, thinks that this is a late approach. While Germany etc. was already in lockdown, NZ still was hesitant. So, he calls this a delayed approach as well.
  - timClicks 7y ago
    As some further context, New Zealand announced its lock down when it had 2 cases that weren't linked to international travel.
  - nobbis 7y ago
    NZ was a few days after Germany, yes, but it's a very isolated country. Germany locked down after almost 100 deaths (and 20,000 cases.) NZ locked down as soon as community transmission was detected (2 cases out of 50 total were untraceable.) No deaths yet.
  - kylemuir 7y ago
    Also a kiwi. Everyone is hesitant and it's natural to be. By locking down we are guaranteeing that people's businesses will fold and a large number of people will lose their jobs / livelihoods. No leader wants to do that unless absolutely necessary. We've had self isolation for people coming in from overseas in place for a few weeks and as soon as that progressed to community transmission we've locked down. We had 50 cases where 2 could not be traced back to international travel. We're now at 200 cases (as of yesterday) and still no deaths. I think hindsight is always 20/20 and I think NZ has done the right thing in appropriate timelines given what we knew at the time. We are fortunate that we are a remote island in the south pacific that makes it easier for us to close borders and contain this much easier than other countries can.
_bxg1 7y ago
Needs a [video] tag
- dang 7y ago
  Added. Thanks!
nzgrover 7y ago
What's happening in NZ explained here: https://covid19.govt.nz/ https://covid19.govt.nz/ And what the "State of National Emergency" means: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/412583/covid-19-state-of-national-emergency-explained https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/412583/covid-19-state-of...
mdrachuk 7y ago
Where will the billionaires flight to next? (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22088278 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22088278)
lynnetye 7y ago
I live in SF but was in New Zealand just 9 days ago. At the time, there were 6 confirmed cases and NZ had already put in place a 14-day self-isolation policy for travelers. Seeing how things _could_ be handled (and watching the U.S. from afar) made it extremely difficult to "go back home." I felt so much safer there. W/ all of that said, I'm actually surprised Arden didn't lock things down sooner.
- robocat 7y ago
  I think the government has failed to prepare everyone, almost misleading us with lack of worry or urgency over the last many weeks. We obviously could have begun some actions months ago (I started acting on the 10th February, Taiwan started acting strongly on 31st Dec). Many people and businesses have been caught out badly in NZ. However, I have some trust that our government has been actively measuring the signals needed to know when to shutdown, and I am now really happy to see action. I have seen many people I would expect to be smarter downplay this (Ioannidis, Musk, etc), and the failure of most western countries to act, so I don’t have too many hard feelings about what we could have done better... NZ has a lot to learn from Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, and other countries that prepared properly and haven’t had to shut down their economies.
slowhand09 7y ago
https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-be9337092b56 https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-th...
NathanTinker 7y ago
As a Chinese living in Auckland, I thought I would be safe here. After the first case detected in the North Shore City about one month ago, people here divided over the virus a lot. Some people were taking it seriously, the other people were not. When I read news and posts from Chinese media, I was so terrified. However when I read news from NZ media like stuff, I felt its not a big deal. I was quite split also. The eventually lockdown is a relief to me. I saw a video, police man already check if people are going out for essential services on street. Also it's grateful we have lots of natural place to go in neighborhood. I do think quarantine here will be much easier than in China.

65 points by partingshots 7y ago

we also did this for the big earthquakes, just gives government power to shut down travel and requisition resources if required. NZ is at level 4 lock down for 4weeks minimum and from the reaction of most of my circle 100% of the people approve of the government action.

radiorental 7y ago
> the reaction of most of my circle 100% of the people approve of the government action. It helps that you have a leader that articulates the scale of the problem and is clear about what measures are being put in place to deal with the situation both tactically and strategically. I don't want to politicize the conversation, HN is not the place for that, but it's striking how the different management styles in say NZ & IRL differ from the UK & US and how that is helping people deal with the crisis. In the US for example, individual Governors (aka Team Leads) are taking up the slack where the CEO is not equipped to deal with the scale of the problem. But fundamentally in a pandemic (aka extrinsic force) what counts is trust in leadership, what Ms Arden is demonstrating. Good luck, stay safe.
- tonyedgecombe 7y ago
  I wouldn't group the UK and US on this, from what I've seen the response is quite different.
  - _bxg1 7y ago
    The strategies are somewhat different, but the failures in leadership are quite similar.
    - tonyedgecombe 7y ago
      What failures are those?
- rukittenme 7y ago
  It has less to do with management style and more to do with governmental construction. New Zealand is a unitary state. The US is a federal state. There are concrete divisions of power and certain expectations of national power from both the people and the states (which hold separate, independent political power).
  - radiorental 7y ago
    I am not talking about division of responsibilities but more the underlying tone of how to respond to the problem. We are not getting a clear, consistent and decisive message from the top in the UK or the US. How individual state in the US respond is regardless. A fish rots from the head down.
    - tathougies 7y ago
      Trump has told people explicitly to stay inside, avoid work if possible, and instructed state governors to issue lockdowns, promising that they have his support. What more do you want? I'm honestly flabbergasted on this one. Trump's response has been more decisive than any past president in response to a national pandemic. Even during the 1918 flu, we never had such a large federal response.
      - macintux 7y ago
        Well, ignoring his intelligence community for months, downplaying it for the first few weeks once he started acknowledging it, and now advocating for a quick end to the lockdowns...
        tathougies 7y ago
        > and now advocating for a quick end to the lockdowns... What rubbish. He's not advocating for it. He just said he hoped for it. Don't we all? > I said earlier today that I hope we can do this by Easter. I think that would be a great thing for our country and we’re all working very hard to make that a reality. We’ll be meeting with a lot of people to see if it can be done. Easter is a very special day for many reasons for me, for a lot of a lot of our friends. That’s a very special day and what a great timeline this would be. Easter as our timeline. What a great timeline that would be. That does not come across as advocating. But hoping. https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronavirus-task-force-briefing-transcript-march-24 https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-coronaviru... > My first priority is always the health and safety of the American people. I want everyone to understand that we are continuing to evaluate the data. When asked how he will decide to reopen the country: Sounds like they will continue the lockdowns if the data warrant it. Shouldn't we hope that all countries evaluate the data? > I think we’ll be looking at a lot of things. We’ll also be looking again at very large portions of our country and I will be guided very much by Dr. Fauci and by Deborah and by some of the other professionals that work with both of you. And we’re going to see what will be. I don't understand why the media doesn't correctly report on these issues. They just really dislike the orange dude
- clagio 7y ago
  I think NZ did the mistake to not test enough people for too long and not doing enough controls at the borders (which is a relative easy task for a fairly isolated island, with only a bunch of international airports). I'm very happy they decided to move quickly in the last week, and the PM did a very good job giving clear information of what is going to happen and what is expected from everybody. Considering that only 4 months ago I was living in Italy, I feel so lucky I moved my family here before things start to collapse back home..
- jandrewrogers 7y ago
  In the US, the State Governors are explicitly in charge of this, not the Federal government which has minimal authority in such matters. It is misleading to describe this as "taking up the slack", given that the US government is specifically structured such that it is supposed to work this way.
  - radiorental 7y ago
    You are not wrong with respect to healthcare but leadership comes from the top, more so when this is not a State specific problem. Just listen to the Governor of NY plead for help. State's can chose to ignore the president but if the want help from the Feds (FEMA etc) then your point is moot.
    - tathougies 7y ago
      The feds have explicitly stated they are willing to help, and are sending resources to the states?
      - radiorental 7y ago
        The leadership, the 'feds' (FEMA) and the states are three separate entities.
        tathougies 7y ago
        Sorry, I'll rephrase. Trump has explicitly stated he is willing to give money to the states to deal with the problem. And has sent resources (like the navy ships, dod medical stockpiles, and emergency hospitals)
        dhosek 7y ago
        No, he says that he's done things but many of these things (like the navy ships) are far from being launched. Much of what Trump says is not true and a disturbing amount of that is actively harmful.
- timClicks 7y ago
  What's interesting for public policy wonks like myself is that New Zealand has increasingly adopted a presidential-style executive. The Prime Minister naturally pulls more face time than other Cabinet ministers and the position has attracted even more political gravity over time, esp. in the Key and Adern eras.
  - rodgerd 7y ago
    We've definitely always had strong Premier/Prime Ministerial identities: think Vogel "King Dick", Savage, Muldoon, Lange, Clarke as well as Key and Adern.
- tathougies 7y ago
  The governors are explicitly in charge of this. The US federal government has no authority to order shelter-in-place. And this makes sense, since the states are as large as most countries. Most states are not anywhere near the level of New York, and while they need a shelter-in-place order eventually, we need to recognize that practically, people can only stand them for X amount of weeks. If you do it too early you risk people flouting the order and continuing to do so once things get bad. The US is more akin to the European Union than a single country, and it's high time people realized this and stopped looking to uncle sam for leadership. During the 1918 flu pandemic, there was no national response. Individual governors and mayors instituted lockdowns as they saw fit, with support from the feds in terms of money.
  - radiorental 7y ago
    The virus doesn't respect state boundaries. While you are not wrong wrt to Fed & State duties - if the leadership is going to take a 'wartime' stance then it needs to message to that effect. The CEO of my company does not tell my team how to deliver product. However, if there's a disconnect between what they're saying and what we're trying to accomplish there is a morale problem.
    - tathougies 7y ago
      > The virus doesn't respect state boundaries. While you are not wrong wrt to Fed & State duties - if the leadership is going to take a 'wartime' stance then it needs to message to that effect. The federal government has been absolutely warlike. Unfortunately, the media reports coming out of the press conferences are completely out of touch and honestly false when compared with what was actually said. With regard to the states not being warlike enough. I don't disagree, but I would have major issues with an American president telling governors what to do. Nevertheless, the administration has taken a very supportive role with regard to governors. Trump has openly praised several governors who have previously called for his own impeachment for their responses to the virus, and even said he wished more governors would follow along (in closing things down, as needed). I don't see how much more warlike trump can get. The governors need to follow suit.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  In the US for example, individual Governors (aka Team Leads) are taking up the slack where the CEO is not equipped to deal with the scale of the problem. This is by design. The United States is a union of individual states. It is not intended to be top-down. Most of that "federal government over all" was added in recent decades. The system is designed so that states handle problems themselves (which, for example, is why each state has its own National Guard). If the problem gets too big for the states, then the federal government is supposed to step in to help, but only in a supporting role. Whether the feds are fulfilling that supporting role in what is clearly a national crisis (though some of the states aren't ready to admit that yet), is, as you said, beyond the scope of HN.
  - dhosek 7y ago
    This is fantasy thinking about the structure of the US and how the problem can be effectively dealt with.
    - true_religion 7y ago
      The US states are like EU nations. They only give up control of anything that passes their borders (and a few other things like the right to leave the union unilaterally). As the US is much older than the EU, its economy has evolved so effectively everything passes a states border giving the federal government the right to control almost every aspect of life (except things explicitly barred from it). However, the moment the federal government institutes a state by state lockdown, control immediately reverts back to the states since nothing crosses the borders any longer.
  - refurb 7y ago
    Canada is following the same process as the US. The federal government has not instituted a top down approach to lockdown, but is rather letting individual provinces do it. Which makes sense, since there are some big differences between them.
rodgerd 7y ago
Yeah there's a handful of Americanized comments on social media ("Muh freedoms!") but generally a lot of approval. I'm glad we seem to be taking our cues from South Korea, Taiwan, etc, about how to deal with this.
- smoyer 7y ago
  Haha ... then their gonna take muh gunz! As an American who was preparing for this in February, I'm not surprised that the number of cases here has grown given that attitude is represented by probably 25% of the people I know. I'm in a university town and expected more. I'm also pretty dismayed that we fell behind this when we knew it was coming. Officials who heard some of the early briefings knew enough to dump their stocks but didn't argue we should start producing test kits? So for now, we're living the dream in our house ... stay safe everyone!
- robocat 7y ago
  To the down voters: NZ is strongly influenced by US media - news, entertainment, online. However just as there is strong partisanship between your political parties, many kiwis have a love/hate relationship with the US, or some of it’s policies. So you often see kiwis take the piss (mickey) out of those we perceive as gung-ho supporters of the US, and vice versa. And that support can vary depending on topic. The usual things we laugh at are: your bi-partisan politics (we have MMP), your gun ownership (any gun deaths are front page news here), your lack of support for your poor (healthcare, unemployed, elderly), your media (you all appear like Texans), and your ego (lack of insight about your weaknesses compared with other countries). I love travelling to the US (although I stopped travelling there about 15 years ago when your government started treating arriving tourists like criminals), I like the majority of Americans I met there, and I love much of your individuality that enables your entrepreneurship, amongst other things. Cheers

PopeDotNinja 7y ago

Good luck in NZ. I'm on Day 12 in Spain. I'm passing the time by learning to cook.

nobbis 7y ago

As a Kiwi living in NYC, I'm impressed by the "go hard, go early" approach the NZ government has taken, compared with the delayed response here. NZ also has easily enforceable border control (surrounded by the Pacific ocean) which is already strict (their economy is so reliant on agriculture exports.) They should come out of this better than most.

worik 7y ago
Tourism.
- iso1210 7y ago
  Tourism stopped weeks ago
_the_inflator 7y ago
My kiwi friend, a doc, thinks that this is a late approach. While Germany etc. was already in lockdown, NZ still was hesitant. So, he calls this a delayed approach as well.
- timClicks 7y ago
  As some further context, New Zealand announced its lock down when it had 2 cases that weren't linked to international travel.
- nobbis 7y ago
  NZ was a few days after Germany, yes, but it's a very isolated country. Germany locked down after almost 100 deaths (and 20,000 cases.) NZ locked down as soon as community transmission was detected (2 cases out of 50 total were untraceable.) No deaths yet.
- kylemuir 7y ago
  Also a kiwi. Everyone is hesitant and it's natural to be. By locking down we are guaranteeing that people's businesses will fold and a large number of people will lose their jobs / livelihoods. No leader wants to do that unless absolutely necessary. We've had self isolation for people coming in from overseas in place for a few weeks and as soon as that progressed to community transmission we've locked down. We had 50 cases where 2 could not be traced back to international travel. We're now at 200 cases (as of yesterday) and still no deaths. I think hindsight is always 20/20 and I think NZ has done the right thing in appropriate timelines given what we knew at the time. We are fortunate that we are a remote island in the south pacific that makes it easier for us to close borders and contain this much easier than other countries can.

_bxg1 7y ago

Needs a [video] tag

dang 7y ago
Added. Thanks!

nzgrover 7y ago

What's happening in NZ explained here: https://covid19.govt.nz/ https://covid19.govt.nz/ And what the "State of National Emergency" means: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/412583/covid-19-state-of-national-emergency-explained https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/412583/covid-19-state-of...

mdrachuk 7y ago

Where will the billionaires flight to next? (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22088278 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22088278)

lynnetye 7y ago

I live in SF but was in New Zealand just 9 days ago. At the time, there were 6 confirmed cases and NZ had already put in place a 14-day self-isolation policy for travelers. Seeing how things _could_ be handled (and watching the U.S. from afar) made it extremely difficult to "go back home." I felt so much safer there. W/ all of that said, I'm actually surprised Arden didn't lock things down sooner.

robocat 7y ago
I think the government has failed to prepare everyone, almost misleading us with lack of worry or urgency over the last many weeks. We obviously could have begun some actions months ago (I started acting on the 10th February, Taiwan started acting strongly on 31st Dec). Many people and businesses have been caught out badly in NZ. However, I have some trust that our government has been actively measuring the signals needed to know when to shutdown, and I am now really happy to see action. I have seen many people I would expect to be smarter downplay this (Ioannidis, Musk, etc), and the failure of most western countries to act, so I don’t have too many hard feelings about what we could have done better... NZ has a lot to learn from Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, and other countries that prepared properly and haven’t had to shut down their economies.

slowhand09 7y ago

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-be9337092b56 https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-th...

NathanTinker 7y ago

As a Chinese living in Auckland, I thought I would be safe here. After the first case detected in the North Shore City about one month ago, people here divided over the virus a lot. Some people were taking it seriously, the other people were not. When I read news and posts from Chinese media, I was so terrified. However when I read news from NZ media like stuff, I felt its not a big deal. I was quite split also. The eventually lockdown is a relief to me. I saw a video, police man already check if people are going out for essential services on street. Also it's grateful we have lots of natural place to go in neighborhood. I do think quarantine here will be much easier than in China.