Editor
January 2020. Lead stories in New Zealand included that Australia was burning out of control; Our concert radio fans were fighting to retain their musical fix and ardent royalists were reeling from the bombshell news that the Duke & Duchess of Sussex were retiring as senior royals. Throngs of carefree holiday makers surfed the waves and soaked up the last days of fun in the sun before returning to work. Meanwhile, some 10,000 kilometres away, a novel coronavirus most vile was stretching its tentacles uncontrollably through the city of Wuhan, in the Hubai province of China. The coronavirus
connected world, there was no escaping the rapacious appetite of COVID-19 to colonise the respiratory systems of homo sapiens, no matter their location, their status or race. It was completely egalitarian in nature and cared not which continent or country became its home. By the end of January, New Zealand had already set up a National Health Coordination Centre (NHCC) and all Health Boards were ordered to report any cases of the virus. On February 3, it was announced that foreign travellers out of China, including international students, would be denied entry to New Zealand.
would be identified as COVID-19. It was late December 2019 when the virus was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Chinese authorities indicated they believed it to be controllable. That prediction could not have been further from reality. The Chinese health system was rocked by shockwaves as it struggled helplessly to contain the tsunami of admissions. A shortage of medical tests meant many affected were undiagnosed and overstretched hospitals could not accommodate the sick. To top it off, guidance from the Government was unclear at best and contradictory at worst. The only measure to quell this extraordinary health crisis was to impose a lockdown not just in Wuhan, but across the country. China was sent home. It was all too late. COVID had already bolted. Within four months the virus had galloped through 184 countries forcing nationwide lockdowns across the globe. Normally bustling cities became ghost towns as the shutters were pulled on businesses world-wide, and workers retreated to lock-down at home. One by one, countries began closing their borders to overseas travellers and many were shut completely. March 11, 2020, the WHO officially declared the outbreak a pandemic. Aotearoa New Zealand was the 48th country to be affected. Already we had witnessed, the surge of cases right across China and wider Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Central America. With increasing concern, we realised, in our globally
Only New Zealand citizens and permanent residents could reenter, and all New Zealanders overseas were urged to come home. It was not until February 28, 2020 that our first case was reported and hard on the heels of this revelation, the Government closed our borders to all people travelling from Iran – the likely source of our first victim’s infection. By Thursday 19 March, New Zealand’s borders were closed to all except returning citizens who would be forced to self-isolate for 14 days. Later, this requirement would change to ‘Government directed quarantine’. It was March 21, when our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, made her first ever address to the nation and outlined the strategy to fight the virus. The plan was a four-tier alert system. As a country, we were now urged to be vigilant about washing hands and observing social distancing rules. All those over 70 years of age or with compromised immunity were advised to stay at home. New Zealand was now at level 2 of the alert system. Overseas travel was found to be the common factor in all New Zealand cases, up to March 23, when the first cases of community transmission were confirmed. That was the point at which Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, and the Director-General of Health, Dr Ashleigh Bloomfield, moved the country into Alert Level 3. Within two days, as case numbers climbed to over 100, a State of Emergency was declared and the country moved to Alert Level 4. Lock down began. The message from our Prime Minister was clear and simple. ‘Stay home, save lives.’ ‘Be calm, be kind, stay home. We can break the chain.’
VID GETS CRACKING
This was an extraordinary moment in our history. Never had the entire country been sent home to lock down. As we had witnessed in other countries, our cities and towns were silenced. Only essential workers, including supermarkets, continued to provide services. Legislation to allow extraordinary powers for Government, Civil Defence and Police were quickly passed. Police could now caution and arrest those breaking the lock down rules. Very few broke the rules and Police viewed their role as educative rather than punitive. In this climate of fear and panic the inevitable stocking up on supermarket goods ensued, with many supermarkets struggling to keep pace with demand. Swathes of empty shelves and signs limiting customers to ‘one-per-person’ became the norm, as supermarket staff worked around the clock to restock shelves. One inexplicable outcome was a country-wide run on toilet paper! A more easily explained shortage was flour – clearly there would be baking sprees during lockdown. Home baked bread would become a popular choice and many examples, successful and otherwise, would be shared on social media channels. Ironically, as families hunkered down in their ‘bubbles’ – the new term for the group we would live with for the next month – the feeling we had become a whānau of five million with a single mission, grew. As one, we all tuned into the daily 1pm COVID Update from Prime Minister, Ardern and Director-General of Health, Dr Ashleigh Bloomfield. Before COVID-19, Dr Bloomfield was relatively unknown. Within a few weeks of lock down, he had become a cult figure. A song, shared widely on social media, was created in his honour and tote bags were designed, bearing his image. Dr Bloomfield introduced us to a whole new set of concepts, including bubbles, social distancing – we must at all times on our supermarket run, remain two metres from any other person – contact tracing, clusters of virus and what that meant, transmission of the virus and why the rules were so important. We were instructed in hand washing, how far a sneeze can travel and why we must sneeze or cough into our elbow. He provided a daily update on the numbers infected, probably infected, those hospitalised and those in intensive care. He also announced our daily death toll from the virus.
He was the man we came to trust as fervently as our own grandmother. He gave us the facts in simple language, interpreted the numbers and answered questions with the clarity of cut crystal. Prime Minister, Ardern, similarly communicated her messages in a way that gave us confidence and persuaded us to get on board with the drive to eliminate this deadly virus. We knew that the virus could not be completely eradicated until a suitable vaccine was found, but we would do the next best thing by reducing the number infected to the lowest of single figures and implement a system to successfully trace the contacts of any infected person. We enthusiastically bought into this health goal and obediently observed the rules of social distancing when out for exercise or shopping at supermarkets. Otherwise we stayed at home. Homes across the country became places of endless creativity. Every week our TV stations ran competitions for the most inventive dances, ball tricks, backyard constructions and elaborate indoor obstacle courses – the nation was unwittingly being educated in time and motion studies. Social media ran rife with jokes and memes that were shared many times over with friends and family. Grandparents learned to work the Facetime app, facebook and messenger services. Creatives wrote lyrics reflecting our new normal, which were put to old favourite tunes and performed on YouTube and other social media platforms. Thousands of culinary delights and new-found hobbies were shared. Gardens were planted and long forgotten DIY house repairs and painting jobs were completed. There were walks and cycle rides close to home, and a new appreciation of the local environment. Easter holidays came and went without a single road death. Streets were pollution free from the absence of cars and industrial activities. Fantails and other native birds began to colonise the empty city walkways, trees and gardens. People found a platform to express their feelings: ‘No matter how much time I have, I will not spend it folding washing’. ‘The supermarket is more thrilling than I ever thought.’ Above all we discovered the value and importance of connecting with people. He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata. What is the most important thing in the world? It is people. But lockdown wasn’t a load of laughs for everyone. For many, the already disadvantaged became more so. As unemployment
numbers grew so did the need for social assistance. Food banks were overwhelmed with requests and the Government stepped in to support agencies and charities struggling to meet demand. With food programmes in schools coming to a halt, there were fears many children would be missing out on basic meals. There were also fears for the health and wellbeing of those suffering mental illness and those who found the lock down stressful and traumatic. Health and disabilities agencies were stretched to meet the influx. Thousands of workers now had no income. For some, their jobs would disappear altogether. The formerly lucrative tourism industry was brought to its knees. These were surreal times and there was no rule book. The Government stepped up to provide billions of dollars in wage subsidies to keep workers afloat. More billions were injected to save businesses and plans were made for major Government investment in infrastructure projects to proceed as soon as the lock down was over. There was no doubt that after lock down, the world would be facing an economic crisis of unprecedented proportions for some years to come. Amidst these concerns, the Government and Dr Bloomfield kept us on course and determinedly focused on stamping out the virus. The message from Prime Minister Ardern was again clear. The health and wellbeing of New Zealanders comes first, or we have no possibility of economic recovery. By May 6, 2020, COVID-19 had infected 1,488 New Zealanders and 21 people had died of the virus. Globally, 3.66 million had been infected and 257,000 had died. Along with the lock down came the closure of all schools. Only once in our history had schools ever been closed in New
Zealand and that was during the 1947 – 49 polio epidemic. At the start of 1948, schools did not open and remained closed until after Easter of that year. All children were assigned to lessons by correspondence, administered by the Correspondence School. This time, schools would provide home learning for the nation’s young people. There was no time to waste. Principals and teachers stepped up and set free every neuron of creativity they could muster. They found ways to communicate with their young people at home. Kids would meet up with their classmates and teachers through their laptop or by phone call. They created learning tasks to cover as much of the curriculum as possible and crafted the learning so that parents at home would manage and not be overwhelmed. Above all, they took account of the health and wellbeing of their families. The Ministry of Education took the lead in supporting the efforts of schools, creating two television channels, assembling thousands of sets of learning resources for distribution to homes and providing thousands of homes with internet connectivity and devices. It was a herculean effort. The Ministry of Education was also the conduit of information from the Director General of Health to the Education sector. Regular updates were sent out to principals, guidelines for the different Alert levels were outlined and all communicated with clarity. It was a masterful display of coordination, planning and execution. Different regions and communities experienced home learning differently. This issue now gives voice to principals from across the country who tell their own stories of their own experiences of lock down and their preparations for home learning.