Coping with Covid

What Changed & How Did We Cope With Covid-19?

This post is a snapshot from April 2020, a few weeks into New Zealand’s Alert Level 4 lockdown during the early Covid-19 outbreak.

So much changed for NZ in a short window of time. The rest of the world felt it too.

Looking back, I have to say I was a bit stunned by the swiftness of it all — Friday I was working, Monday they announced upcoming level changes, and Thursday 26th March, Level 4’s lockdown status came into play.

It didn’t seem like much notice — from Monday’s business as usual, to school closure on Tuesday, to ‘find your bubble’ by Thursday.

Plans flew into place. My Dad, who had been visiting us from up north, set off home, and we shifted suburbs. In the space of a day, my kids went to school and came home, not to return until further notice.

Our school’s teachers had mere hours of notice about the shutdown and coped so well with it, even sending home books for learning and additional supportive resources.

They had already done a bit of training in using Microsoft Teams, which they solidified on Wednesday and began rolling with on Thursday as lockdown set in.

Since my husband supported IT for his school and we lived in a house bus, we were able to move our location before lockdown came into effect, to access stable wired internet so he could support all the online learning needs for his school during quarantine.

I was glad we were mobile at times like that, as our whole life was already set up and we more or less collected our chocks and drove somewhere else. We had little to consider overall, were on a small budget, and were already in a tight space, so we didn’t face much adjustment in those ways.

A Shift To Online Learning

Microsoft Teams for my kids’ distance learning was new to me, so after settling into our new locale, that was our first routine to set up.

The first few days were a bit crazy for everyone. Learning the platform, getting the hang of logging in, being ‘in class’ on time, knowing where to find lesson videos or worksheets, and completing and handing in work, all without ‘regular’ teacher guidance — and that was just me!

Overall though, Teams worked really well for their online learning, aside from the distraction of the chat feature for kids, which was enabled to start with.

I also wondered how teachers kept track of rolls and assessment checklists, since all work was submitted using photos, which must have been a challenge for them given how many students’ files they had to gather — especially the secondary teachers.

Since lockdown day, daily Covid-19 cases had fluctuated in NZ, but the trend of total confirmed cases was heading down by this point, and we’d flattened the curve, making the lockdown hard but worth it in my opinion.

Thank you to all our essential workers!

Jacinda Ardern, NZ’s PM at the time, encouraged and praised public adherence to the restrictions, and around when this was written, announced that restrictions would likely ease, with a first possible move towards Level 3 in the weeks ahead as the country looked to exit that period of total quarantine.

But while Covid-19 researchers in New Zealand were optimistic that the Level 4 restrictions could be lifted in at least some regions fairly soon, they warned that New Zealanders should prepare to do things differently for up to 18 months, and that Level 4 days were highly unlikely to be completely over.

What Did Our Struggles and Wins Look Like?

We all responded differently to different aspects of quarantine, probably because of our personalities and coping strategies.

Here’s a comparison of how each of us approached it at the time:

I wondered what life would look like after Covid-19, and whether it would be different to life as we knew it. And if so, how?

I worried that hygiene and social distancing practices would become a habit and affect the way we cared for others after all of it. I hoped not.

In the end, I had no control over several decisions related to quarantine and our nation’s response to it and the world, so I decided to control what I could: my attitude. I chose to stay positive about how things would pan out and to keep my responses to any changes helpful to those around me.

What Did Life Look Like For New Zealand Post-Lockdown?

Ardern outlined what life in NZ might look like after lockdown — face-to-face interactions stayed off the cards initially, but additional transport services, policing, and takeaway options were expected to open up again soon.

Schools expected changes too, with rolling lunchtimes meaning children faced reduced mixing.

Teachers expected to use hand sanitiser on entry and exit to schools and classrooms, and to apply physical distancing through new seating and room-use arrangements to reduce infection risk.

When conditions or levels changed, it seemed to help when governmental decisions were made and announced as early as possible, to allow people to adjust their expectations and reduce potential feelings of disappointment and anger.

The four-week lockdown officially ended on Wednesday night, 22nd April, at 11.59pm, though the Government didn’t announce whether the country would move down a level until the following week.

Either way, aggressive contact-tracing and testing to weed out new cases continued, with Level 4 held in reserve as a back-up should new clusters flare up.

Meanwhile, the spread of Covid-19 overseas meant that long after New Zealand lifted restrictions on everyday life, the border stayed closed for a long stretch, alongside ongoing testing, tracing, and isolation strategies.

Thankfully, visiting friends and family within New Zealand and returning to work and school didn’t stay far off, and most of us were eventually able to get back to our jobs and have a social life again.

How did your family find the transition to lockdown, wherever you were in the world? What did you worry or wonder about at the time? We’d love to hear in the comments.

If this brought back memories, feel free to pin one of the images below to share.

Other great posts you might enjoy:

10 Ways To Thrive During Lockdown

Living Small During Lockdown in NZ

Meagan