Lockdown done. First Day at Level Three

Tuesday 28 April 2020 marks the day life for many New Zealander's took a step towards resuming normality as we moved from level 4 to level 3 of pandemic management. The basic difference is that businesses can reopen if they can keep staff safe and maintain social distancing. That means dealings with customers must be contactless. The rule is still, if you can work from home stay home. For Eric this means he'll continue at home but a few of the staff who have not been able to work from home will return to the office. At a personal level households can extend their 'bubble' to one other bubble.

Eric had to go into the office to just ensure staff had everything they required to meet their COVID-19 health and safety policy and pick up some files. He said town was as busy as normal except there was no foot traffic.  The point at which it hit me was when we had our evening walk. The traffic on SHW29 which we cross was horrendous at 5pm. I totally resented this intrusion on my personal peace!! I think it was just a blip as it was quiet as 30 minutes later when we returned. No we did not walk that far, we got taking to a neighbour.

I spent the morning doing housework (which I don't count as productive) before heading outside for 'proper' work. I paint a small section of the house (the areas that required the most prep a week or two ago, locked the Plymouth Bard and chicks into the chook house while I removed the chook tractor and turned over the soil before putting everything back. Just to give her the chance to scratch a bit more and, hopefully, eat the oxalis bulbs which are the bane of my life. I put down the carpet sections I cut up yesterday and starting pulling the largest weeds up on the drive before spraying, hopefully tomorrow, it was too windy today. Finally I went through my raspberries that I have in pots and a 'holding bed' a bit more. I really want to get these planted this week. I have decided to mix the summer and autumn varieties into one row. I'll probably regret that but will look at separate ones another year. I just want to get them in! Continued with general tidying up. I think a bonfire is one the horizon. Ban lifted and lockdown done!

As of  9am today: New cases 3. Recovered 1,118. Total 1,472. Deaths 19. Matamata cluster total 76 cases.
Tests: yesterday 2,146. Total tests 126,066.