Right to be ready for lockdown

It is the L-word we now all dread, but there is no point in pretending the possibility of it again becoming a part of our lives does not exist.

Lockdown — one word, two syllables, now loaded with trepidation and memories of a period in our lives we would all rather not repeat.

Yet lockdown is, clearly, the best method of halting any outbreak of Covid-19 in its tracks, at least until some sort of universal vaccine is developed and approved.

So, there should have been no surprise this week when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed some more details around how a future outbreak of the virus in the community would be treated.

The "response framework" comes as Covid-19 continues to cause havoc around the world, and while New Zealand — having successfully stamped out community transmission — maintains its steadfast approach of only allowing returning citizens and permanent residents back into the country, and only after they serve a quarantine period, it must have a plan in case the situation worsens.

Elimination will remain the overriding strategy, and it was reassuring to hear Ms Ardern maintain the policy would be to do "absolutely everything possible to avoid the entire country returning to Alert Level 3 or 4 as a measure of last resort".

It is very clear: nobody, not even those who enjoyed the relative peace or the lack of traffic, wants to return to either of those situations.

So, it’s still imperative to remain vigilant — good hygiene practices and contact tracing have to remain part of our lives for some time.

There also needs to be some preparation for lockdown on a smaller, regional scale.

Ms Ardern outlined a broad sweep of the plan to use alert levels, including lockdown if required, at a regional level if there were contained cases within a community.

Examples including locking down a city or a town — or even a suburb, or neighbourhood — and compulsory wearing of face masks, or door-to-door testing, which would allow most of the population to continue life as normal while, ideally, snuffing out the Covid-19 outbreak.

Full inter-regional travel restrictions could be reintroduced if there is a large cluster within a region, and people will need to get their heads around the prospect of armed forces blocking off roads, and things like restrictions on gatherings coming back.

Finally, of course, there is scope to return to nationwide alert levels should the virus really flare up again.

"No-one wants to go backwards," Ms Ardern said. And never a truer word has been spoken.

It is incumbent on all of us to keep working as the team of five million, to avoid complacency, and to maintain a state of vigilance even as our lives return to effective normality while much of the globe still suffers.

Our border security is working well, but as we have seen in other nations, even one slip-up can be potentially devastating, and no system is fool-proof.

AND ANOTHER THING

We trust Dunedin will be front and centre if the proposal to hold the entire 2020 Rugby Championship in New Zealand is accepted by the Government.

Sanzaar has announced it would like to hold the tournament, including the All Blacks, Wallabies, Springboks and Pumas, in New Zealand, which has the facilities, the crowd interest and (crucially) the control of Covid-19 required for this sort of event.

The Government, recognising the economic impact and morale boost the tournament could provide, says it is open to the idea if all safety questions can be answered.

Forsyth Barr Stadium is not the biggest facility but it is the best. Having lost the international doubleheader that was to be played tonight, it would accept a consolation prize (or two).