Easter: A time of rebirth and resurrection
Naveed Balouch
Founder & Managing Director @ Home Advantage Limited | Personal Financial Planning & Business Consulting/Coaching
According to Wikipedia, the name Easter is believed to come from `Eostara’, the goddess of rebirth. In early times the `Feast of Eostara’, celebrated earth's resurrection and rebirth.
I hope that this year’s Easter will be the time stamp of our turning point from the current malaise that has the entire world in its grip.
Certainly, here in Aotearoa, largely because of our strong community spirit and the strength of the `social contract’ between government and citizens, we appear to be on the path to managing and even reversing the Covid-19 threat.
In eight days, the Government is set to decide whether the country can come out of a four-week lock-down on or around April 23, or whether the restrictions need to continue to further eradicate the virus.
Whereas even a single death is not a welcome statistic, it is testimony to the response of Kiwis to the government’s call for a complete lock-down, that our country’s mortality rate is just 0.3 per cent.
This is in stark contrast to Italy, with 12.8 per cent mortality rate or the UK where it is currently at 12 per cent.
According to a recent article on the government's Covid-19 website, experts in New Zealand have said our low mortality rate is in part, due to the number of young people testing positive. Those in their 20s account for 24 percent of New Zealand's total cases. They also attribute it to limited community spread.
When asked about New Zealand's low death rate earlier this month, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said he put it down to two things:
One was that we reacted much earlier in the outbreak than other countries and had put in measures much sooner.
"But secondly, we've got a much better idea than [other countries] have of the total number of cases and I think there's agreement around the world that where you see what appears to be a disproportionately high number of deaths compared with the overall case numbers, it's very clear they're not finding all the cases."
New Zealand was close to finding the majority of cases, he said.
Through this and similar challenges that we have faced as a country, we are fast earning a global reputation for being a nation possessing a strong and cohesive community spirit, decisive leadership and a responsive, agile and capable emergency infrastructure.
I truly believe, that once things start heading back to normalcy in the world (and this will take some doing), New Zealand will have become an even more attractive country for immigration and investment; our strong international brand will lead to more export and economic opportunities, and we will become even more of a beacon of modern nationhood in the rapidly changing 21st century.