The Covid 19 Delta variant entered New Zealand somewhere in August and because people like to travel, it spread from Auckland to Wellington and maybe to the South Island.
The government decided to put the country into lockdown level 4 again for about a week. That meant that everyone had to stay home. No work, no open businesses, no spending money at shops other than “essential shops” like grocery stores and gas stations.
A week was doable. For most people. My neighbours pretended not to have seen any news and had parties anyway.
Then after a week, the South Island went from level 4 to level 3. The main difference is that fast food restaurants and essential businesses are allowed to be open now, only accessible via drive through and contactless payments and interactions. I also had to go back to work.
The moment the level shifted, people around me started acting like the ‘Rona never existed. Traffic is back to normal. Where the fuck are they all going? McDonald’s, getting their coffees, because it’s hard to operate a plunger at home?
The folks around me have been having non stop (different) visitors and when you hear them talk, they say stuff like “I don’t have it” and “The Delta was never in the South Island, so we are safe”.
I have seen people extend their bubble from 4 to the population of a small countryside town. The extend of stupidity is astounding.
Imagine being deemed a non essential business. You see all these fucks walking around with their coffees and their Big Macs (“we have to support the local businesses”) and your shop cannot open because you sell handmade quilts, hemorrhaging money every day.
It must be hard for the quilt shop.
Aaaaand we back in level 2
I think I’m going to give being in social situations, like shopping or eating in a restaurant a break until we are in level 1.
The level change from level 3 to Delta level 2 was announced last week Monday and changed on Tuesday September 8 at 11.59pm. I send a message to my buddies “So where are the drinks on Wednesday afternoon?” And didn’t think anything of it.
Come Wednesday morning, my personal email inbox was overloaded with emails from companies that were preparing to open under the new rules, i.e., mandatory to wear a face covering (notice how it does not say “mask”) at public places, like bars, restaurants, cafes, supermarkets and shops, keep 2 metres distance, scan the QR code upon visiting. That is all good and dandy if everyone is doing it. I noticed that the 2 metres distancing was thrown out of the window in the first nano second of Delta level 2. People still scanned the QR code, but the wearing the face covering…..some people are doing the bare minimum. I say people with plastic clown masks, which have holes in the eyes, nose and mouth parts, I saw a lady wearing a handkerchief being held up with a rubber band, the lower part flapping in freedom, then there’s the dudes wearing the tiniest of dust masks while having gigantic unruly beards, so the mask is literally sitting on the beard. Not even gonna mention the people who don’t wear their masks properly.
And yet I’m being barked at by the Covid QR code scan nazis at the door of every establishment I have visited since entering Delta Level 2. (All three of them, because after witnessing the face covering debauchery, my ass ain’t going nowhere until we are at least in level 1.)