Lockdown Day 15: Don't try this at home

Before: the least grisly photo!

Thursday 9 April: Today Eric went to some extreme to escape lockdown. He had an altercation with the (corrugated iron) barn door. The wind blew it closed on him and he nearly lost the top of his right middle finger as a result through the middle of the nail down to the bone. At the local medical centre we were greeted by a staff member in PPE, booked in by a receptionist behind a perspex screen, triaged by a nurse with a surgical facemark on and treated by a doctor who wore nothing (not literally, you know what I mean!). I sat bravely through the grisly procedure where Eric's nail was removed and the nail bed and finger was stitched. So, as well as restricted by lockdown he now can't even work around the place. Crap timing as well, the start of a 5-day weekend!! I was hoping we would make great progress on the house painting but obviously not!

And so, as the third week of lockdown starts so does the Easter weekend. As with the UK we have gorgeous weather. The tradition in NZ is that this weekend is the last at the bach (holiday home) for the summer. Obviously this should not happen this year and the police have started setting up roadblocks to check on the reason for peoples movements. In Murchison camper vans were turned round and sent home to Christchurch, nearly 300km away. Why do these people think that the rules don't apply to them?, do they think that they are immune to coronavirus, that they cannot spread this virus?? Perhaps they could volunteer their bodies to medical science so we can all learn their secrets.

As of 9am today: New cases 29 (lowest since the rise began). Recovered 317. Total 1,239. Deaths 1.
Matamata cluster 64 total cases.