While the current phased of lockdown was extended for another two weeks a few days ago, we do now have a pretty clear vision of when we could begin to get things back on track in this country.
A lot of things will have to be done before then, but the Government are hoping to enter the final stage of their plan in August.
That will be well behind the trajectory of some other countries, however. The likes of Germany are already starting to reopen schools, while a number of nations are starting to let people reenter the work force.
All of this depends on how well a country has dealt with the pandemic thus far. New Zealand are one example of a nation who have managed to minimise the effects of the coronavirus. To date, they have recorded only 20 deaths, with 1,137 cases in total.
They are now beginning at reopening the economy, with their Prime Minister Jacinda Ardhern hoping to do so reasonably quickly.
Speaking in a TV interview, she used Ireland as an example of a country who have been forced to get things back on track at a much slower rate than New Zealand are hoping to do.
I think the majority of New Zealanders want us to be cautious because we want to do it once and do it right. The worst thing we could do is move prematurely and move between levels so people yoyo in and out of work for a prolonged period of time. That would be disastrous.
The great position we are in is that we can move through the stages in relatively short amounts of time if we get it right.
I was just looking at Ireland. Their stepping down is taking them through July before some people are back in work. Because we’ve managed to contain as we have, if we do it right, we’ll be back in quick step in getting the economy moving again.
Others are taking a very long time.
