Two be or not two be
Ahead of level 2 decision, 500 possible breaches reported
The Prime Minister will today reveal whether New Zealand is ready to move into alert level 2 — which could happen as soon as Wednesday.
Ministers will weigh up advice from the Health Ministry and other key agencies before making the final call.
Epidemiologist Michael Baker says the Government should consider making the wearing of masks on public transport compulsory to reduce the risk of a second wave of infections.
Meanwhile, many parents say they will keep their children at home when schools re-open for all students at level 2.
I am concerned . . . these people are not keeping to the rules, and their apathy or ignorance could put us back into level 4 and affect people’s livelihoods.
Driver in Newmarket
Almost 500 possible breaches of level-3 rules were reported to police this weekend, as many Kiwis prepare for what they hope will be a move to level 2 this week.
People flocked to beach suburbs and took waterfront walks in cities such as Auckland — and there was a long queue for icecreams in Hamilton — but police are generally pleased with Kiwis’ behaviour.
Fifty breaches of level-3 rules were confirmed in the 24 hours from 6pm on Friday to 6pm on Saturday, compared with 112 in the same 24-hour period last weekend.
Altogether 479 possible breaches were reported to police between 8am on Saturday and 8am yesterday, down 45 per cent from the same period last week.
“Overall, police are happy that the majority of New Zealanders are complying with alert level 3 restrictions,” a spokeswoman said.
“In the vast majority of these incidents when police attended it was found either there was no breach or staff were able to engage with the people gathered and educate them on what is appropriate during alert level 3.”
Yet scores of people walked close together on Auckland’s Ta¯maki Drive, and locals in Wellington’s Lyall Bay said they had never seen so many surfers in the water as they saw on Saturday.
Yesterday a Hamilton resident photographed what he described as “a half mile-long queue at an icecream truck at a kids’ playground that’s supposed to be closed”, at Hare Puke Drive, Flagstaff.
“As C3PO would say, ‘We’re doomed’,” he said, citing a robot character from Star Wars.
The contradictory evidence came ahead of Cabinet’s decision today on whether to move the Covid-19 alert level down from level 3 to 2, which would allow gatherings of up to 100 people while keeping a metre apart from others indoors and “ideally two metres” apart outdoors.
The latest mobility data from Google shows that although New Zealanders started moving around more in the first week out of lockdown, it was still much quieter than before the coronavirus crisis began in February.
On April 29, the first day of level 3, Kiwis clogged fast-food drivethroughs and hordes thronged Auckland’s beaches, leading to fears of a coronavirus resurgence.
But although Google’s data shows a definite uptick in park, beach and workplace visits, the numbers were still well down from a “baseline” on May 2 — the first Saturday out of lockdown.
About 1pm yesterday, a man driving through Auckland’s Newmarket saw crowds outside Sun World Restaurant clearly not keeping to the social distancing rules while waiting for takeaways.
“This is the second time today I’m seeing this, and the first time there were at least 10 more people standing close to each other,” said the man who wanted to be known only as Roy.
“I am concerned because these people are not keeping to the rules, and their apathy or ignorance could put us back into level 4 and affect people’s livelihoods.”
But a Herald photographer on Ta¯maki Drive yesterday morning said the area was not particularly busy.
“I’ve seen it busier.”
Under level 3 rules, people can drive to parks and beaches in their region, as long as they follow social distancing rules, stick to the nearest option and don’t do anything dangerous.
By May 2, Google’s data said 56 per cent fewer people were heading to the beach or park, compared to the baseline. By comparison, in the first week of lockdown such visits were down 78 per cent.
Visits to transport hubs, such as bus and train stations, were down 84 per cent in the first week of lockdown and by May 2 that was still down 65 per cent.
Travel to workplaces has been steadily trending upward since the lockdown lifted, but by May 2 they were still down 34 per cent on the baseline.
The data also gives a snapshot of which parts of the country are physically returning to work and who are still working from home, or not at all.
In Auckland, workplace visits were still down 37 per cent by May 2, and in Wellington down 40 per cent.
Canterbury was down 34 per cent and in Otago workplace visits were down 45 per cent.
But in the Bay of Plenty, workplace visits were just 25 per cent below prelockdown levels, and in Gisborne it was 16 per cent.
Visits to places such as restaurants, museums and libraries are still more than 80 per cent down on pre-Covid19 levels — unsurprisingly given most of them are closed.
The mobility reports are generated from devices which have their location history setting turned on, so may not exactly represent the population’s movements.
State highway monitoring by the NZ Transport Agency also shows an uptick in traffic but not to pre-Covid19 levels.