It’s been a while since we’ve heard the “hermit kingdom” description of New Zealand. It was what former prime minister John Key labelled New Zealand in an opinion piece he shopped around several media outlets during the Covid-19 delta lockdown, when he encouraged the government to move away from the lockdown approach that the government had taken over the first two years of the pandemic.
And after the government this week decided to keep our seven-day mandatory isolation for Covid-positive individuals, “hermit kingdom” is once again how the country is being described. “Retaining a seven-day mandatory Covid isolation period makes New Zealand a global oddity. It’s a kind of hermit kingdom redux, 2023 edition, where Labour keeps treating adults like kids and putting costs on the economy like money is no object,” said Act Party leader David Seymour in a press release titled “Dictatorship of academics still running Covid-19 policy”.
“These academics can work from their laptop at home. They don’t have to leave the house to earn a buck and they don’t care what costs they’re imposing on workers and small businesses with the advice they’re giving to the government,” Seymour added.
Experts have, largely, welcomed the continuation of our Covid isolation requirements. Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles, for example, in comments to the Science Media Centre said: “Rather than thinking of these as ‘restrictions’ we should welcome them as important public health measures that help reduce the transmission of Covid-19.”
Like Seymour, National’s Christopher Luxon also decried the mandatory isolation requirement, telling RNZ’s Ingrid Hipkiss that New Zealanders should be trusted to stay home when sick and then be able to return to work when they were feeling better. “Many other countries around the world have already moved on,” he said. “If you’re well and you can go to work, that’s good. We should trust New Zealanders to do the right thing.”