Underscoring that Covid-19 is uncontained outside our borders, a woman wears a face mask on Oxford St, in London, as new rules on wearing masks in England come into force. Photo / PA via AP
Underscoring that Covid-19 is uncontained outside our borders, a woman wears a face mask on Oxford St, in London, as new rules on wearing masks in England come into force. Photo / PA via AP
New Zealanders are now being urged to "be ready", as the country remains under the "very real" threat of Covid-19.
With as many as 70 per cent of Kiwis admitting life feels exactly the same or only slightly different than before the virus hit in March, the All of GovernmentResponse is undertaking a new publicity drive to heighten awareness.
A spokesman said the latest version of Unite Against Covid-19 campaign was relaunched at the weekend, chiefly to remind people the very real threat the virus still posed to New Zealand and counter increasing levels of complacency in the community, especially around testing.
"In reality, Covid-19 is uncontained outside our borders, and under level 1, every New Zealander has a part to play to keep the virus at bay. So now we're calling on New Zealanders to "Be Ready".
He said this meant keeping track of movements, practising good personal hygiene and keeping home if sick and seeking medical advice.
Last month research by the Covid-19 Response Group showed around 70 per cent of people thought life felt exactly the same or only slightly different compared with pre-Covid times. Fewer than half would now comply with official requests, down from 90 per cent in March.
But the spokesman warned this was not a time to relax but remain vigilant and comply with requests, especially when it came to testing.
"Testing remains a crucial part of our overall response to Covid-19 and we all have a part to play. Our message to New Zealanders is if you are offered a swab, please take up that offer."
It was also important to keep track of movements in case there was a second wave.
"As we can see in other parts of the world, Covid-19 spreads rapidly. If a case reappears in the community, we will need to act swiftly, and the better records that we keep of our movements, the faster we can respond," said the spokesman.
Health Minister Chris Hipkins said that we "cannot afford for Covid-19 fatigue to set in".
Even the smallest sacrifices will help, which include signing in with the Covid app.
"There have been 627,000 downloads of the app so far and 82,000 posters displayed by businesses and organisations," he said.
Hipkins will be writing to every mayor in the country, asking them to ensure their local businesses and public facilities are displaying the QR codes.
Meanwhile, Auckland University marketing professor Bodo Lang said the nation had collectively done a great job of containing Covid-19 and considered official messaging had played an important role in accomplishing this.
"The framing of the message makes a really big impact," he told NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking.
"One of the key principles of advertising is a very simple one and that is repetition. If you hear a message once you probably won't remember it and you certainly won't follow through on the message. If you hear a message multiple times - and the magic threshold is often purported to be three - repetition is really important."
The latest "Yes to the Test" slogan to get people agreeing to community testing was a simple yet concise message.
"A message like that can have one of three impacts; it can have a negative impact which was highly unlikely, it could have no impact, which was possible, but the mostly likely case is that it would encourage those people who were on the verge of dropping the behaviour that they would continue with that behaviour."
