Letters to the editor: Infected must be made accountable

These people were supposed to self isolate which was relatively easy for resident Kiwis but not practical for visitors.

The sooner the extent of this infectious disease is known the better, so that the carriers can be stopped from transmitting the virus.

There must be some legal requirement to make infected people responsible and accountable for infecting others, which may be fatal for some victims.

Any possible carriers should be placed in quarantine facilities.

We are an island nation and we need to lift the drawbridge as if under seige.

We dare not leave it down to returning folk unless they can prove that they are not a threat to their fellows.

Our borders need to be closed to any new arrivals unless they have medical proof that they have spent time in quarantine elsewhere, and are not infected.

The advice from overseas is to test so the virus can be traced and stamped out.

(Abridged)

R.V. Anderson
Papamoa

Rates

Doesn't Monday's Level-4 Covid-19 announcement make a stay of Tauranga City Council's process to fix the rates increase for the 2020-2021 year unavoidable, if not compulsory?

Not only has the financial future of thousands of ratepayers been placed under a dark cloud, but, also, the numbers and circumstances on which the council's forecast of its own income and expenditure is based are going to change markedly over the next few months, and probably for much longer. Everything's been turned upside down.

Furthermore, consultation through a public in-person hearing is no longer possible. That flaw alone might invalidate the process.

The council should suspend the rates review process immediately and go into its new financial year with the rates unchanged.

To do otherwise, in my view, would be foolhardy and, yes, arrogant.

The time to go ahead with a review is when things have settled down and there is a stable situation to deal with; not now.

Bratty Scott
Papamoa