New coronavirus cases not surprising – government knows it

From the very beginning of the novel coronavirus pandemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand the government had focused on getting all 5 million of us to commit to Level 4 lockdown.   They did not tell us they were not going to do enough testing to be sure they knew the extent of community transmission.  It worked through Level 4.  But then the quick movement through the other Levels engendered some complacency and a lot of impatience amongst many of the 5 million.

Things were happening so quickly at the start that there was some inevitable looseness (“self isolation” is loose) but we managed to prevent devastating spread which other countries have had no chance with.  But this was also because we are a small outlying island which had fewer borders for the virus to be brought in over.  The lack of dedication to protocols evident in the current case of the two over from the UK and not tested is a sign of this impatience within a traditional feeling of moat-like isolation.  This may not be surprizing but the government could have told us early on they would not be testing enough to have confidence in knowledge of community transmission.  Likely there would be less impatience now.