What the hell’s going on at New Zealand borders? Couple of weeks back the country reached 22 days without COVID-19; since then there’s been about three new cases a day…?
Thing is, and the reason this annoys me so much, the great people of New Zealand have already done their penance (I will not include myself in this accomplishment as, at this time, I was still living it up in COVID-free Vietnam) effectively putting the nation in the clear; four weeks of enforced nationwide lockdown, along with already closed borders and rigorous quarantine for returning citizens, had meant that existing Coronavirus basically died out and there was no further transmission of the virus.
Then, presumably due to our Government’s generosity in offering a two-week quarantined hotel stay to returning Kiwis, everyone started coming back to our antiviral shores but, unthinkably for the newly COVID-free New Zealand population, these expatriated idiots are bringing with them fresh doses of COVID-19.
The question clearly needs to be asked, how long will this fiasco be allowed to continue? Until somebody slips through quarantine and infects the community, until we have the same predicament as Victoria? Or maybe just until every other person currently living abroad with a New Zealand passport decides they want to enjoy the freedom of a country where Novel Coronavirus has been contained?
I went to Vietnam in December 2019, scheduled to return to New Zealand three months later; in March, my return flight was cancelled and not until June was I able to get home. Everyone on my flight went straight into quarantine and, expectedly, none of us had brought back COVID-19.
The point, everyone in my group had booked return flights which were then cancelled; our planeload was of genuinely stranded tourists. I feel as though we had a right to come home. We were not selfish expats looking to fly our diseased lungs to safety; I feel as though these people have far less right to take advantage of New Zealand’s purity.
When my plane flew into Auckland airport and we were promptly checked into the Pullman hotel, nobody to whom I spoke thereafter believed there was any point quarantining our group as we had been in areas where COVID was virtually non-existent, leading us all to assume the Coronavirus pandemic was dead, anyway; this seemingly was just Cindy’s way of helping out the struggling New Zealand hotel industry but, either way, we enjoyed a nice break.
Now, after checking out of hotel accommodation on the 15th June and landing back in Canterbury by nightfall, having witnessed New Zealand reach 22 days with zero new cases of the Novel Coronavirus, this infernal influx of contaminated expatriates is dribbling in from around the world, pushing our quarantine restrictions to the brink, as if seeing how many infected idiots it will take to cause a fatal slip-up.
One of these stupid returning expats has already threatened the nation’s health by ‘absconding’ from the Pullman hotel just a few nights ago and potentially mixing with the community; unfathomable that anyone would put their nation at such risk.
At this rate New Zealand is never going to reach the ’30 day COVID free’ mark – why the hell was there never a time limit put on returning citizens, and who the hell is still flying aeroplanes around the world, anyway?
New Zealanders have already been through hell in the name of COVID-19; are we now willing to risk a national relapse in the name of ‘human rights’?
So, what about now – can someone not just tell these idiot expats to get their (apparently) Kiwi arses into quarantine in the next month or they’re cut off?
Article by Tim Walker
Edited by Stu Pad-Espat
Photography by Nhu Casey Covid