Covid-19 Lockdown Day 2 27 March 2020

I sit waiting for the Prime Minister's 3pm update. Hearts cascade up the screen although she has not yet reached the podium. A minion adjusts one of the side banners. Stay home. Break the chain. Stop transmission. This has become part of the daily pattern: a numbers report from Ashley Bloomfield at 1pm, Jacinda Ardern at 3pm. Not surprisingly, the number of cases have increased. The worrying aspect is that there is a man in his seventies on a ventilator in Nelson Hospital.

The update has nothing especially new. The Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson, reiterates that employers must pass the subsidy they receive on to their workers, ideally to 80% of their usual wage. It sounds as if not every employer is doing this.

Otherwise, the day has slowly ground on. I spent the morning on Messenger with Spark sorting out our Netflix account. Let's hope I've done it correctly and don't end up paying twice. On my neighbourhood walk, things seemed much quieter than yesterday. Hardly a soul was out today and definitely none of the regular people or dogs whom I see. Now it's raining and I think I saw that snow is forecast in Canterbury - that's just what people need!

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