Thank you to a team of five million

This newsletter is about your unity, your sacrifice, and your success so far. You should be enormously proud of what we are achieving together, even though there’s plenty more to do. We’re showing that a team of five million, working together, really can take a huge step towards the goal of eliminating COVID-19 from New Zealand.

Now we have to finish the job.

As you will have heard, New Zealand will move out of Alert Level 4 after ANZAC Day, on 28 April. The Government would not have been able to make that decision without your efforts. Across New Zealand we came together as one team. We went hard, and early, to protect our bubbles and break the chain of transmission. So far, your efforts look to be paying off.

Our infection rate (the number of cases each person with the virus passes it on to) is now 0.48, less than half a person each. Overseas the average is more than five times as high. That progress is thanks to you.

Nearly every case identified since 1 April is related to an existing cluster or person with the virus. Fewer than ten cases don’t have one of those clear links, which is just 0.6% of the total number of cases. That small number is thanks to you, too.

In addition, we have now tested over 85,000 New Zealanders for COVID-19, and almost all those tests are negative. That gives me confidence the risk of hidden community transmission is low.

In short, our team of five million effort is doing the job we set out to do.

Do not underestimate what you have achieved so far. The situation today could have been very different.

But remember this is a marathon, not a sprint.

As we move to Alert Level 3, let’s not waste this chance to eliminate the virus by losing our focus or discipline. We’re not out of the woods yet. Any complacency now can undo everyone’s hard work.

Here are the golden rules for life at Alert Level 3.
1.    Stay home. If you are not at work, school, exercising or getting essentials, then you must be at home, the same as at Alert Level 4.
2.    Work from home if you can. We still want the vast majority of people working from home and limiting contact with others.
3.    Make your business COVID-19 safe. Employers must only reopen their workplace if they can do so safely. Important industries like construction, manufacturing and forestry will be able to open, as will retail so long as it is not customer facing.
4.    Stay local. Exercise at local parks or beaches within your region. Closer to home is better. Activities must be safe – keep two metres away from anybody not in your bubble.
5.    Keep your bubble as small as possible. If you need to, you can expand your bubble a small amount to bring in close family, isolated people or caregivers.
6.    Wash your hands with soap often. Then dry them. Cough or sneeze into your elbow.
7.    Stay home if you are sick, and get tested if you have any respiratory illness.

Schools will reopen on 29 April, but remember attendance is voluntary – parents should keep children at home if they can. The small number of children attending will primarily be the children of parents who have to return to their workplace.

Winning the fight against this virus is the best way to save lives, but it’s also the best thing we can do for our economy. That’s why there are still strict measures in place at Alert Level 3.

Our aim is to enter lockdown once, do it right, and hopefully never return. We all want to move down alert levels as soon as we safely can. That’s the best way to protect jobs and get our economy on the road to recovery, too.

The discipline we have displayed at Alert Level 4 must now become the hallmark of our actions in Alert Level 3.

Kia kaha, take care, and let’s finish the job.  

– Grant