New Zealanders Can Return Hunting And Fishing

New Zealand photo illustration (Dan Freeman / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Through a lockdown policy, New Zealand has finally been able to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In line with this success, now the steps taken by the owners of the policy are to loosen the rules a little by allowing New Zealanders to return to work, fishing, surfing, hunting and mountain climbing for the first time during the pandemic.

This step was taken based on the confidence of the New Zealand government which was responsive to making efforts as early as possible to prevent the spread of the virus from Wuhan. As a result, about 400 thousand people will return to work on Monday, April 27.

Launching Reuters, this was done not solely to restore the social life of New Zealanders. Moreover, the government wants to restore the economic activity which has been critical because of the ferocity of COVID-19.

Therefore, a variety of business activities, parliaments and courts have made preparations to operate again this week.

For example, restaurants are ready to make a lot of deliveries, retail shops don't want to be left behind by preparing to release new collections so they can be purchased online. In addition, offices have begun to instruct physical distancing rules again, both in elevators and in public areas.

Even so, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stressed that public gatherings were still prohibited and asked people to keep their distance. "We have to make sure that we don't let the virus spread to us causing new waves and cases of death ... To be successful, we need to fight back to the very last case of this virus," Ardern.

For the easing, the General Manager of the Surf Industry Group in New Zealand, Ben Kennings welcomed it. He said people seemed to want to go back to the sea, which before the outbreak of COVID-19, the average number of visitors waiting to surf was 60 thousand people each week.

"We have complied with the physical distancing rules not to surf during the lockdown, but due to the easing (of the rules) tomorrow there will be many people who want to surf ... This is an individual sport that can practice physical distancing," said Kennings.

Previously, the New Zealand government had carried out quite strict lockdown efforts. The authorities closed offices, schools, bars, restaurants and various delivery services on March 26. On that basis, New Zealand began to face challenges in order to restore the wheels of the country's economy which completely depend on the trade and tourism sectors.

Meanwhile, so far New Zealand has confirmed 1,122 cases of COVID-19 transmission. Among them, there were 19 cases died.