Importantly, New Zealand is launching economic support for people negatively impacted by the lockdown, another thing that has been lacking until recently in neighboring Australia’s recent lockdowns.
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The government is paying up to $600 per full-time employee per week for businesses that can show they’ve lost 40% of revenue during the lockdown period.
Ardern assured New Zealanders that she’d be back at 1 p.m. local time on Wednesday (9 p.m. ET Tuesday) to provide an update to the country. And while the lockdown is anticipated to lift for most of the country in just three days, presumably that could change if more cases are detected outside of Auckland.
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It all might seem harsh to people outside of the region, but there’s a reason that countries like New Zealand have seen just 2,926 cases and 26 deaths since the start of the pandemic. They locked down hard and they locked down early. And most people in New Zealand think that’s better than just living with death and disease.