Rob Rattenbury: The team of 5 million is back together

A member of the team of 5 million in line for a Covid-19 test. Photo / Brett Phibbs

OPINION

As I sit here typing this, Delta has just flown the coop from Auckland to Wellington. The only sounds I can hear are tui, bellbirds and the occasional thump of a kererū passing by.

Occasionally a neighbour's car rumbles by or another courier van or local supermarket online truck delivering necessities for lockdown to our semi-rural piece of Kiwi paradise arrives in a rush of diesel, radio music and masked cheery greetings. Mostly it is just very quiet.

People walk past, well apart from others, some masked, most not for some reason, walking their dogs and themselves.

The nights are deathly quiet, not a sound, not even the freight trains passing through a couple of valleys over.

Tuesday, the day it all happened, started like any other day at the love shack. Breakfast, read the local paper, check emails, do some proof-reading of upcoming opinions and views, trying to ensure some balance is kept.

Tuesday is the fortnightly grocery order day. We have purchased our household necessities online for some years now so the new order was placed before midday to arrive about 5.30pm. Tuesday evening. All good.

Then rumours started on social media that Delta had escaped in Auckland, an outcome we all dreaded but knew was likely. The rumours were confirmed later in the day, we are off to level 4 as of midnight. Coincidentally we had just had our second jab the day before thankfully.

The bride, a retired nurse, asked me where I have put the masks she made me last year. Not sure, better have a look. I must admit I find them uncomfortable to wear but I do look quite fetching in a wind-swept rugged way when wearing them apparently.

Nothing much further changed personally for us as we have continued to use most of the systems we put in place in early 2020. One of us will visit the local dairy for milk every week or so, not me, too risky just now.

Some upcoming meetings and a lecture I was due to deliver have all been postponed together with a planned trip to see a very dear mate who is terminally ill. I now may not be able to say goodbye to him personally which upsets me as we were young men together and our careers and lives were intertwined for many years. We have many great memories.

Covid-19 is exacting a toll on all of us despite the low death count and the low case numbers. We have taken the mantra of the government, "Go hard, and go early" seriously, well most of us have, and it will pay off again. As a country with a small population, it seems more personal for us, more important that we care for each other.

It does not matter if our borders are closed a bit longer, many older people are now resigned to the fact that they may never travel overseas again, except to some Pacific island nations and Australia.

It is annoying and severely disruptive to business not being able to travel internationally but we seem not to have suffered too badly so far in terms of the economy. We are a relatively rich wee country able to feed 40 million souls per year so we will never go hungry.

This lockdown will be disastrous for some small business owners still struggling to recover from last year and may finish one or two. Our international tourist industry, just starting up again with our cousins from across the ditch, is now non-existent for the immediate future following the bubble-pop a few weeks ago.

We really must observe the lockdown rules as we simply do not have the medical facilities to deal with the huge numbers of Delta patients seen overseas, where health systems have all but collapsed in some countries.

It is clear that lockdown rules will be enforced stronger than last time by police. Everyone has been educated by now so the next obvious step is enforcement action. It gets to a point that talking and advising, while all very nice, is not cutting the mustard.

The "team of 5 million" is back together again with a renewed common purpose. Recent months have seen our society become polarised by certain issues. Hopefully those will be put to one side for the duration of lockdown and people will look past supposed differences for a while.

We are so lucky to have such brilliant scientists to call on. Listening to their opinions, they all have one thing to say in common - do not underestimate the Delta variant. When we look at our nearest and dearest neighbours and how it has changed New South Wales, in particular, we must learn from that.

How long before level 3 - depends on how careful we all are.