Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Monday 11th May that New Zealand is moving to next alert level down to Level-2 from 11.59 pm on Wednesday. While making the announcement she rightly said that we may have won the battle but the war against Covid-19 is not over yet. No one should assume that Covid is finished or not with us anymore. It is just that we now will have to learn to live with it, taking all due precautions for our own and other’s safety and wellbeing.

Social distancing and maintaining prescribed hygiene are the new normal now which we may have to follow for a long time to come, at least until any effective medication or vaccine for Covid-19 is found. Scientists all world over are busy working day and night, to find a permanent solution of this deadly pandemic. Government is being really cautious in announcing moving to alert level-2 with still limiting the numbers of people in any gathering to ten, will keep a watch on the outcome of level-2 numbers until May 21st. if we are heading in positive direction with the same contained numbers than these group gathering numbers can be increased to up to 100, with still strictly following social distancing. As we are passing through some very extraordinary and unprecedented times our government does not want to take any unnecessary risk about the lives of its people.

As we all know our economy is in shambles due to the complete lockdown of all business and economic activities, so it is now the topmost priority of government to bring the derailed economy back to track. In New Zealand, we were fortunate that government could use some surplus money as cushioning during these troubled times by supporting businesses with wage and other cash subsidies. This surely gave most businesses some breather and they did not suddenly collapse due to financial pressure, especially small businesses. We now need to carry this momentum with our own efforts by doing some extra hard work as government has its own limitations cannot keep supporting us for ever. The best way of responding to government’s good work will be to strictly adhering to each level’s regulations and not putting any extra pressure on our health agencies. If we strictly follow the regulations of Level-2 then we will not be contributing to existing burden of health department and thus paving the way to move to next level down. Our lives will back to normalcy soon if we rigorously follow all regulations of each level. This is a very basic thing to learn to all and it does not cost us anything either. What may cost us dear is if these restrictions continue for a much longer time then it will become very difficult for all of us to bring the economy back on track. So, its time now, to not to get over excited about the newfound freedom and to behave in responsible manner, which is good for all of us.

It is also time now to be financially wiser and conservative in approach in day to day running of businesses. There are many loopholes in every business which usually don’t get your attention and where we can work wisely to stop any seepage of our precious funds. As they say, ‘money saved is money earned’, hence in these tough times where every cent value, we need to be very careful about these small matters. Finally, when we come out of this situation at some point and everything looks good and in control only then we can think of relaxing, until then we will always need to be on our toes and alert at all the time .

This Covid crises will end one day but this has taught us some very precious lessons that we need to remember and practice for rest of our lives. Please be patient and be kind to others and stay safe.

-Yugal Parashar