Thursday, March 28, 2024

FROM THE RIDGE: Life as we now know it

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We’ve been lucky again with this risk of the virus coming across the border via the Aussie travel bubble. First several thousand people flew out of Victoria as their community transmission developed and yet not a single case ended up here.
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And then more recently, the Australian health worker who spent a weekend in Wellington as he became infectious seems to only have finally infected his wife.

We’ve been encouraging the Aussies to come and get stuck into the experiences we have to offer, knowing to do so, they will open their wallets. A lifeline for the hospitality and tourism sector.

I saw this guy described as a good example of a model boyfriend given the varied artistic and social experiences he engaged in with his spouse, but despite passing by thousands of others in his few days here, once again we appear fortunate. It surely is a matter of time before that luck runs out.

Just after the Wellington region went into its Alert Level 2, Beef + Lamb Genetics had their conference for sheep stud breeders in Napier.

Last year was cancelled due to the pandemic, but this one looked like its timing was good and had a great lineup of speakers and workshops.

I drove up to Napier but was a little late having done my stock shifts in the dawn. I asked the lady at the registration table if Wellington’s situation was posing any difficulty, but she felt all was well at that point.

I grabbed a chair at the back of the room and watched a couple of presentations before Dan Brier, the general manager, had to interrupt to say that a casual contact of the Aussie guy had been with us, was now in their room, had a test and the results wouldn’t be back until the following day. A little later we heard that the person might have some symptoms and so the conference was being curtailed.

Many had travelled from all around the country to attend this much-anticipated conference and were obviously disappointed.

My only contribution of the day was to point out that this was the world we now lived in, the organisers had no choice, despite the extremely low likelihood of a positive case, as the risk of creating a cluster and exporting it around the rural regions wasn’t worth taking. Disappointment and a negative test result were the best outcomes over the alternatives.

But it was easy for me as I only had a bit over an hour’s drive home, whereas many others had to wait it out in Napier for what was a negative result the next day before eventually flying home.

These sort of hassles and disappointments have been with us all since March last year and will continue well into the future I expect. It’s already becoming a distant memory of a time when you organised something with the certainty that it would go ahead.

I’ve got close friends who flew to Australia recently to look after their grandchildren while their daughter had surgery. While they were there, the wife’s dad died at the same time as flights from Australia were halted and because they are in New South Wales, their chances of getting back soon don’t look great. A difficult and emotional situation for them. Again, these experiences are not uncommon.

We have a son who has been working in the UK for over two years. He’s spent much of that time locked up in his flat and working from there. He would like to get home for Christmas and a couple of family weddings. Hugh and his girlfriend can get the flights but as you will know, securing a spot in managed isolation is another matter, so time will tell if they make it at all.

They have both been vaccinated with the sensitiser and booster shots and there is a strong case that those immunised against the virus shouldn’t have to stay in MIQ at all, given the inability to carry and transmit the virus. Negative tests should be sufficient. This would free up MIQ for others.

Given our relatively few deaths and infections to date, we as a country have been more sheltered from the consequences of this worldwide pandemic than anyone. You only have to talk with folk from other countries to understand how much tougher it has been for them than here. Everyone I’ve been in touch with are very envious of our current situation.

However, although life has largely returned to normal, we remain shut to the outside world, with even a handful of cases triggering the sorts of restrictions highly-vaccinated places are now abandoning.

It hasn’t been an easy 15 months for anyone, and we are one border fail away from an exceedingly difficult time.

Let’s hope the system, officials and yes, even Lady Luck continue to perform well.

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