Finally, after the move to Level 2 Alert was decreed, the small business where I work was able to move back into its premises, after weeks of delivering a hastily established online service as the level 4 lockdown was imposed.
As a small group of health professionals, plus admin/reception staff, we had found ourselves bound by the dictates of our specific body, who also claimed necessary adherence to the rules of the Health Department as their governing body. Prior to this, we’d had to watch Level 3 being introduced, where Uber drivers and fast-food takeaway outlets were trusted to abide by health and safety rules, while we, as health professionals were not.
For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been back on deck, in our premises, but with a printed list of specific, mandatory health protocols to be followed each day.
Every hour, I’m required to take a cloth soaked in a solution of bleach/water (1:50) and wipe down all hard surfaces in our clinic, including stair handrails, doorknobs, windowsills, waiting room chairs (now spaced well-apart), etc, and wipe down keyboards, EFTPOS terminals, reception desk, phone and mouse etc, to make sure of cleanliness.
As we have an appointment system, we can easily contact trace, but in addition, we have a sign-in sheet and clean/used pens plus sanitiser for anyone who accompanies a client with an appointment or walks in from the street, without an appointment.
Our health professionals are required, among other rules, to clean their consulting room, and wash their hands with soap and water after each patient, and thoroughly clean their own room at the end of each day. I/we live in an area with NO community / identifiable point of transmission.
Over the weekend in a large, nearby shopping mall, I stood in a queue for half an hour outside a particular business. I had to wait until I was close enough to the barrier where I was instructed to “sanitise and wait for assistance” before being allowed inside, in order to talk to one of the four assistants on duty.
Why, then, must I/we continue to meekly follow this, when a group of protestors can congregate in Auckland and elsewhere in New Zealand, in complete defiance of these rules, and seemingly without consequence? And just as a parting shot this week, Jacinda has declared that “If and only If” there are no new, unexplained new cases of the virus, we MAY be “allowed” to go to Level 1 some time next week?
Along with many others, up till now I have been supportive, compliant, understanding, accepting, and willing to go along with being cautious, but at this point, I’m saying “Who’s taking the Michael?”
Rebellion is calling…
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