Thank you to our essential workers
‘‘The nature and the magnitude of this event is out of the norms of what we plan for. It’s all new work, new problems that have to be solved.’’ Craig Campbell-Smart
Taranaki Civil Defence group controller
Each morning while millions of New Zealanders stay home during the lockdown, Michelle Carter’s
3-year-old son begs her not to go to work.
The 28-year-old Taranaki Base Hospital emergency department nurse doesn’t get to work from home or spend time on DIY projects like so many others.
She’s on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic and one of tens of thousands of essential workers across the country getting the rest of us through this.
But it’s not just nurses and doctors on the frontline, it’s checkout operators, police officers, rubbish collectors, vets, farmers, food processors, dairy owners, posties and many more.
Before Covid-19 Carter’s main job was looking after her two children at home. Her nursing was done on call.
Now, she’s full time in the thick of a global pandemic while her husband stays home full-time and looks after the kids.
‘‘It was exciting for the kids at first because dad was home all the time. But now I know my 3-yearold is really starting to miss me and will beg me not to go to work, so it’s a little bit heartbreaking,’’ she says through tears.
‘‘But this is what you do as a nurse, you sign up for these sorts of things.’’
Carter says although the outlook for Taranaki and the country is looking positive, it isn’t over. In fact, this is the critical moment she says.
‘‘We can’t all relax now and go back to life as normal. It’s not finished. We have to follow the Government’s advice and keep to this lockdown.’’
Working alongside Carter on the frontline is Emma Jordan, team leader of Taranaki’s community testing centres. Carter describes her as a ‘‘magic little fairy in the background who fixes everything’.
Jordan’s job is to ensure the testing centres where patients drive in to find out if they have Covid-19 run smoothly. Such magic isn’t easy.
‘‘You don’t think about anything else, you live and breath Covid-19,’’ she says.
Being involved in fighting a global pandemic has been incredible, she says, but frustrating too.
‘‘I was riding my bike home last week and passed all these people having little parties in their streets and clearly they weren’t two metres apart. And I just thought ‘I’ve been at work all week, working these long hours to try and get this clinic up and running and there’s these people having parties’.
‘‘We’re doing our best for everyone so everyone
needs to do their best for us and stay home.’’
Jordan’s work and that of other essential workers is paying off.
So far Taranaki has had 13 confirmed cases of coronavirus and one probable. Crucially it has not had a new case since April 1. Nationally, recoveries outnumber new cases. The lockdown is working.
While it’s not surprising healthcare workers are classified essential workers, not everyone expected to be working in a job made vital to the future of the country by the 28-day lockdown.
But when Covid-19 put her career working at an international airline on very shaky ground, Kelley Rodger took matters into her own hands.
The 28-year-old got herself a job as one of the country’s newest heroes – a supermarket checkout operator.
Rodger has been at Pak’n Save New Plymouth for a week.
She’s part of a team of 248 people, and says it’s a privilege to be working on the frontline of history.
‘‘It’s a golden moment for me. Instead of sitting at home I just thought I’d come in and keep myself busy and hopefully make this time go faster.
‘‘It’s good to be out doing something to keep my sanity.’’
Rodger doesn’t know what will happen with her original job, but for now she’s just happy to be helping out.
She is one of 45 new staff Peter Melody, owner of Pak’n Save New Plymouth, hired in anticipation for the lockdown.
He could do with more staff now, but how does one go for a job interview during lockdown? It’s a position he never thought he’d be in.
‘‘It’s a bit daunting and we’re wanting to get it right,’’ the 57-year-old father of five says.
The last month has been about anticipating what will come next and stocking for that, Melody says.
In the days before New Zealand went into alert level 4 lockdown people were queueing outside Melody’s store before it opened, ready to stockpile such items as flour and hand sanitiser.
The majority of customers were following physical distancing rules in store and treating staff with respect.
‘‘We have 11,500 people following us on Facebook and we had casual Friday with the staff and posted to say ‘hey if you’re in store can you give people a thumbs up, a thank you, or post online.
‘‘There was a groundswell from that, it was sort of a changing point.
‘‘It really changed the mentality of a lot of people.’’
Melody says staff morale was good and two customers buying chocolates for all the checkout operators had certainly helped.
Craig Campbell-Smart, Taranaki Civil Defence group controller, is at the forefront of managing the pandemic in Taranaki and keeping everything ticking along.
His job is to ensure no New Zealander gets left behind by coordinating across health, police, welfare and social services.
‘‘The nature and the magnitude of this event is out of the norms of what we plan for. It’s all new work, new problems that have to be solved.’’
The 42-year-old says he hasn’t had time to pause and reflect about being on the frontline of such a globally historic event and it was just about getting the job done.
But with with longer hours and intense days his life has certainly changed in the last month, which he describes as a whirlwind.
‘‘Being able to switch off, go for a walk, check in with my wife and the kids, and spend some quality time has become really key and important, you need to de-stress and unpack your brain for the next shift.’’
Despite a few ‘idiots’ here and there, CampbellSmart says the people of Taranaki were doing awesome in their response to the lockdown. ‘‘We’re bloody legends,’’ he says.
‘‘I know people are getting antsy and getting a bit tired with the restrictions but we need to stay firm with these for the next couple of weeks.’’