Paul Little - The Covid Chronicles: Lessons from New Zealand

CONTENTS

For Lila and Emmie

CONTENTS

This is not the story of New Zealands response to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. It is the story of how that pandemic affected several lives, told in their own words. The subjects were chosen because they each had a connection to areas that would be directly affected: government, research, education, media, small business, big business, mental health, social services and others.

When this book was begun, the participants had no idea how their stories would end nor how successful the countrys efforts would be in dealing with the threat of the coronavirus. Serendipitously, its deadline coincided with New Zealands move to Alert Level 1 life almost as normal. This provided a tidy finish for the book but not, of course, to the story of the pandemic.

The people in these pages were interviewed once a week, starting in Alert Level 4, to record their experiences of the pandemic and its effects on them as they happened. (For biographies, see page 283.)

They are owed a huge debt of thanks. They were all quick to agree, never less than fully involved and always generous with their time as the agreed-upon weekly 10-minute catch-ups invariably stretched to half an hour.

The project was driven by the belief that personal stories, recording and writing in real time, provide a special perspective on history, without the filter of hindsight. Its value was confirmed by my wifes reaction when she read the first draft: Id already forgotten so much of this.

It was also intended to be a celebration of the New Zealand effort against the virus. When we win the Americas Cup or the Rugby World Cup we usually havent done anything except sit around and watch. When we won the battle against Covid-19 we really did do it together. Without a unified effort, the lockdown would have failed and our coronavirus death toll would have been considerably higher than 22.

We are still in the middle of a pandemic was the official message as we moved to Alert Level 1 and as we were reminded when new cases appeared in the country weeks after the last one had been recorded. At the time this is being written, there is no way of knowing what twists and turns the progress of that pandemic may take nationally and internationally before it ends. But for anyone wondering about its beginning, this is what it was like.

December 20193 January 2020

44 patients with a mysterious illness are reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by Chinese authorities. More than half have links to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan.

7 January

Chinese authorities identify a new coronavirus. They record its genetic sequence and make it available internationally to enable the development of diagnostic kits.

1320 January

Cases of the virus spread from China into Thailand, Japan and South Korea.

23 January

The number of cases has risen to 581, with the virus reported in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and the United States. There have been 17 deaths. Wuhan closes airports, train stations and roads in and out of the city.

24 January

In New Zealand the Ministry of Health sets up a team to monitor the situation but describes the risk of the pandemic reaching the country as low. Australia confirms there are three cases of the virus in that country.

27 January

Public health staff announce they will begin meeting flights from China to look for signs of the virus.

28 January

A National Health Coordination Centre is set up by the Ministry of Health in response to the spread of the virus.

30 January

The government charters an Air New Zealand flight to evacuate New Zealanders from Wuhan.

31 January

The WHO declares the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern.

2 February

There are reports that the virus has been transmitted between people who have not visited China.

3 February

The government imposes entry restrictions on foreign nationals travelling to New Zealand from or through China and requires them to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival.

Universities ask that Chinese students travelling here to study be exempt from the restrictions.

6 February

The chartered flight arrives from Wuhan and its 193 passengers are put into 14-day quarantine at a military training camp at Whangaparoa.

11 February

The WHO names the disease Covid-19, short for coronavirus disease 2019. More than 1000 people have now died from the disease.

17 February

A Chinese tourist in France becomes the first person outside Asia to die after contracting the virus.

19 February

The first case of Covid-19 is reported in Iran. People evacuated from Wuhan to Whangaparoa are released from quarantine.

24 February

There are 79,331 cases confirmed globally, 2069 of which are outside of China.

26 February

For the first time, there are more new cases reported from countries outside of China (459) than in China (412) in a 24-hour period.

* * *

New Zealanders, isolated and in our own minds far from the rest of the world, are nevertheless an outward facing people. Many of us are either overseas, thinking about going overseas or have friends and family established overseas, so we are often more aware than most people of what is happening in countries other than our own.

In the beginning, the coronavirus from Wuhan was just another item in a news report, as likely to be quickly forgotten as any other. In the end, our isolation would prove crucial not just to withstanding it but to overcoming it.

If you knew someone in China, you probably had the benefit of an early warning.

Grant Robertson

Minister of Finance

I was at Waitangi for the Treaty commemorations at the start of February and took a phone call from Rodney Jones, a person Ive known for a long time who runs an investment company. Until recently he had lived in China for the best part of 30 years and he is an expert on the country. He was ringing to say he was extremely worried about what was happening in China and that I should be worried about it too. I paid attention to that. I was starting to read a lot about the coronavirus in the newspaper by now.

For most, the news was just another item in a bulletin, but others were immediately aware of its potential significance.

Juliet Gerrard

Prime Ministers Chief Science Advisor

I was having a family holiday at our bach on Great Barrier Island when news reports began to appear saying there was a new virus in Wuhan, China. Having the job I have, it was on my radar instantly. Everyone was on holiday at that time. I quickly checked in with Ian Town, the Chief Science Advisor for Health.

Chief science advisors from countries all around the world are in touch with one another anyway, but even more so for events like this. Early in January a small group of us, including those from the UK and USA, got together and agreed this could be really serious and we needed to start thinking about how we could judge just how serious.