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Hanging teddy bears on the doorstep of Auckland, New Zealand was an idea that convinced Lina María González very little. At least the first days. That game – that the winner was the person with the most teddy bears to count – soon pierced his doubts. Lina, a Colombian mother of three children whom she took out for a walk at least once or twice a week, ended up appreciating that gesture of little resilience in the middle of a country that considered the coronavirus pandemic “eliminated”.
The announcement was made this week. “There are no major local infections in New Zealand. We have won the battle, ”said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. The figures: 1,472 infected and 19 dead; only one infected by Covid-19 since April 1; and the fact that for every 100 tests carried out in the oceanic country, only one was positive.
Analysts attributed not only the success of the results to what were “the strictest restrictions imposed on New Zealanders in modern history,” as Ardern called it, but also to the advantage of having a low population density in the country: 18 Inhabitants per square kilometer. Lina, for her part, thinks that much of the achievement is attributable to the community itself.
“There is a group known as the ‘Student Volunteer Army’ that has gained a lot of strength in helping the population that requires it, for example, in articulating with pharmacies to deliver medications to those who need it or in the market distribution ”, highlights the woman, who hails from Barranquilla.
In December she was a mother for the second time. She had twins at a time when the coronavirus was the exclusive news of China, a time well before the end of March, when the New Zealand government declared level four of alert, which among its orders to the population is that pregnant women who had given birth during that month they could not be visited by family or friends in order to avoid contagion in the child.
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Except for the short walks she took with her children, the only times that Lina went out was to exercise in the same neighborhood and buy the necessary groceries at the supermarket. Now, after the “elimination” of the virus (but with a minimal possibility of new cases appearing), New Zealand eased the measures by moving to alert level three, which allows most companies to open, including restaurants with addresses.
But there are restrictions that will not expire for now: mass meetings, the opening of shopping malls, the closing of borders and face-to-face classes. Confinement, adhering to the “bubble,” as the natives of that country have called it lately, is still a current order. At least until May 11, when the government will assess whether it can go one step further in flexibilization.
“In a country that is highly dependent on tourism, which receives about $ 23 trillion each year from that sector of the economy. In my case, as I am the director of a migration and study agency called Sea International, we are just another industry that has been affected by this situation, ”she says.
Juan C. Cortés lives with his wife Isabel Cristina Patiño in New Zealand.
Special for El País
The uncertainty between March 23 and 24, dates when the most demanding confinement was announced, was overwhelming. Many feared bankruptcy or unemployment, Juan Carlos Cortés, a Valle del Cauca born in the municipality of Algeria, felt a slight relief when he learned that the government would subsidize most companies so that they would pay their wages. employed for a period of three months.
Juan Carlos lives in the same city as Lina, in Auckland. He shares a room with his wife Isabel Cristina Patiño, who is from Medellín; They have both lived in New Zealand for a year and a half, when their goal was to study English. Today, they have already raised the first pines of their new life on this 268,021 square kilometer island: Isabel, in the customer service area of a car rental company, and Cortés are hired to develop the structure of the skies satin.
The only time the couple went out was to market. The first time they did so two weeks after alert four was implemented.
“You had to send a text message to the supermarket number and once you received the confirmation, you could already line up at the entrance. It’s kind of like ‘check-in’. And once inside the place and finished all the purchases, one went to the cashier, which is separated from you by a glass, and you made the payment, ”says Isabel.
He adds that as soon as all the products were finished being invoiced, the customer had to pack them outside the supermarket: “the strictest restrictions imposed on New Zealanders in modern history” fully penetrated the smallest aspects of daily life. Outside the place, near the main entrance, Juan Carlos (or Isabel, depending on whose turn it was) was awaiting the return of his wife inside the vehicle.
The return along uninhabited streets reminded them of the talks they had during those days with some friends who had to do the shopping on foot, in a city where the residential areas are, generally, almost an hour away from supermarkets. Thinking about the long walk back and forth was an image that suddenly caused an irritating tiredness, unless the person managed to get on public transport, already quite limited.
“This being locked up at home is not the ‘ending’, as many people came to believe. I think it is a time to reflect, to rescue family time, in which a hug, a caress or a kiss with those who share your space is more valuable than any outing away from home, “says Juan Carlos.
For Juan Carlos, another reason why the coronavirus could be contained within the country was the constant communication between the authorities and the citizenry: every day the Prime Minister made announcements of the news of the pandemic, even with type videos Facebook Live from home while quarantining.
He claims that not only resilience served as a recipe for a full month of confinement.
“Behind the fact that people abided by the rules, we find a citizen awareness that it is not only me, my world, that may be affected by the pandemic, but that of my neighbor, that of all my fellow human beings. It was empathy, “he says.
What really catches the attention of the quarantine, and which in fact acquires a certain tint of universality in almost any part of the world at this time, is that leaving little or nothing of those four walls translates -sometimes- into an attitude of introspection “Says Juan Carlos, who maintains that this pandemic” is a time to find yourself. “
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