But on the same day as the Ministry’s ‘final briefing’, someone in our household of three people tests positive. After keeping COVID-19 at bay all those months - being super-cautious because of a particularly vulnerable person in our household - we get COVID. Life isn’t fair, they say.
I think we’d actually had the bug about a week. I can’t help thinking that it entered household shortly after the mask requirement in public transport and shops was dropped. Circumstantial evidence only I know - it doesn’t wash.
And disturbingly among the stats released by the government regarding differing levels of protection in the ‘new freedom’: only 56 per cent of eligible Maori aged over 18 and 61 per cent of eligible pacific people aged over 18 have received a first booster. This compares with 73 per cent of all eligible people aged over 18.
Though COVID cases and deaths are declining, fortunately, there were still 36 deaths of people with COVID in the week to 18 September.
The extreme COVID protection measures in the early days - the rahui/lockdowns and household isolation did wonders to pull down flu rates and other communicable diseases as well, and showed how nature can recover quickly when given the chance. Not that they could be continued forever - but it was telling us something.
What lessons have we learnt? None of us live for ever, but how do we best protect the lives we have, and who decides how much effort - and inconvenience - we put into protecting the most vulnerable, and those without a loud voice - whether they be human lives or otherwise?
