Lockdown - day 12

Well, I didn't think I could post every day, and I was right. The fact is being stuck at home with four teenagers is pretty mundane, because they never leave their room except to eat bread and cornflakes. Occasionally one will forget there are other people here and start wandering around the house on a video call - and for some reason they always speak at full volume on video calls - but we usually just lead them back their rooms. Apart from that they're generally quiet all day, and then call their friends at midnight. I can't tell you how many times I've had to text them asking them to be quiet.

The number of new cases in New Zealand is falling, while the number of tests they're doing is increasing, so clearly it's going well. The government originally said "4 weeks" but won't commit to an end date. They are trying to define some objective measures to decide when we can come out of lockdown but they're in uncharted waters here, and other countries haven't exactly lead the way.

Hard to believe that on March 21, just over 2 weeks ago, NZ introduced the four "alert levels" and started us at level 2. Two days later we were at level 3, and two days after that we went to level 4.

The differences between levels 1 and 3 are pretty incremental, all around border restrictions, size of gatherings, social distancing, etc. Then, boom, level 4 shuts down nearly all businesses, schools, public venues, events, travel, etc. It's a pretty big leap. 

So if/when we do go back to level 3, I imagine people will just assume everything is OK and go back to their normal lives, and the virus will immediately begin spreading again.

The government pointed out the alert levels could be applied regionally, so in theory one area could be at level 3 - eating at restaurants - and just over an arbitrary line people could be in lockdown. That seems rather silly. It also means you can't have consistent messages or a coordinated response -- how is that working in the U.S.?

In another two weeks we may see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we have no idea what we'll find when we leave the tunnel.