Relief at level 2, vigilance needed

Some of the rules for safe physical distancing under coronavirus level 2 will be different. That doesn’t mean they’ll matter less. It’s a message that stands repeating, given some of the dunderheaded behaviour reported at the weekend.

Just about everyone is feeling over level 3. But when police report that, in 24 hours from Friday to Saturday, 50 people breached existing restrictions, and more than 1000 did so in the preceding fortnight, we should acknowledge the risk this represents.

Which is twofold. The direct risks in terms of revived infection rates, and the no less important pitfalls of glazing over when presented with lists of present and future restrictions.

Police put it plainly enough: the weekend’s transgressors knew full well that they were doing so. They just didn’t let it stop them from that backyard church service, or that three-year-old’s birthday party.

By and large, we haven’t been conspicuously punished for that sort of malarkey. It’s true that there have been no specific reported cases of the virus spreading because people breached the physical distancing rules.

At the same time reports keep coming – South Korea and Germany among the most recent examples – of what can happen when lockdown relaxation and dumb behaviour combine. Infection rates spike anew.

Some of the lapses at the weekend would have been OK under level 2, but we face hard times ahead if we don’t appreciate the dangers of moving ahead of the rules to get where we want to be.

In that respect it’s perhaps unhelpful that there’s often been talk of the ‘‘relaxed’’ rules that await under level 2. Relaxed, yes, in terms of the rules being easier to live with. But they must be no less clear just because the circumstances in which they apply may change. Certainly no less clearly enforced by the authorities or by society.

Physical distancing is going to be part of our lives for some time.

Under level 2 we’re told that, with conditions attached, we can safely connect and socialise with groups of up to 10 people, visit cinemas, shops, playgrounds and gyms, return to our recreational activities, and hold, say, small religious gatherings and celebrate life’s important moments with loved ones.

But as for wider-out relationships, we’re to minimise contact ‘‘to the extent possible’’ keeping our distance from other people in public.

Even now, that’s a counter-intuitive thing for most of us. We have work to do to respect one another’s personal space, and our own, without feeling like you’re being a repellent.

Which won’t be the case, provided we collectively both exercise and expect a reasonable measure of civility.

And there remains, for each of us, a need to keep track of where we’ve been and who we’ve seen. A degree of organisation that will come far more easily for some than for others.

Over time, much of this will be informed by experience. The trick is that bad behaviours indulged at this point will themselves become experience too, and painful to correct. At least the great majority of New Zealanders have kicked off on the right foot.

And as our society starts to circulate more vibrantly again, our collective willingness to do the right thing should be more evident to one and all.

Physical distancing is going to be part of our lives for some time.