How long do you think the shutdowns will end up being?

Where are you seeing details on how the 'waves' or limiting/reopenings are being handled?

I just saw a short piece in China on CNN but it looks like they are back to normal. They showed a park and it was crowded. Now maybe for China it’s not crowded but by US standards. Markets are back open.

I thought I heard they had another surge in cases and locked stuff back down but maybe not.

China is pretty big and just like a lot of our restrictions are state by state or even city by city, a lot of their restrictions are province by province or city by city.

Wuhan, specifically, has had multiple waves of shut downs and reopening sand back to shut downs.

Are you hearing about the need for testing etc and in the future vaccines of course? Our government aren't giving us a date at the moment, understandably. They're saying they will review the stats around Easter time and will go from there but we'll need to ramp up our testing numbers so we can manage the resurgence which will inevitably come. I imagine it'll be another couple of weeks and then a gradual opening of more essential things like optician, dentists and so on. I think we're a way away from being able to go to the pub unfortunately

Yes there's lots of talk about testing here and reports saying that a vaccine is 12 - 18 months away. We have recently increased testing capacity to 5000/day. In today's update from Director-General of Health and the PM it was said that there have been more than 42,800 tests so far, almost 3000 yesterday. Community transmission is holding at 2% but testing needs to increase and the government said it also needs to ensure that testing is appropriately distributed across the country so it can tell if some regions can come out of lockdown before others or face more measures if there's a further outbreak etc. From today when our national contact tracing system is being moved to a digital platform, they will be able to link directly to lab results and also get reports on region wide tracing percentages as well as do breakdowns based on ethnicity, age etc. 

Today there were 54 new cases, down from yesterday's 67 and 89 the day before.

I really admire the way NZ is handling this, and the fact that you've only had one death so far. Which is one death too many, of course, but better than a lot of other countries, even when taking your small population into account. 

I'm really grateful for the way that the government here has taken decisive action to try to stamp it out. There is economic pain but to me that's preferable to a huge loss of life like other countries have unfortunately had to suffer.

We are in our 5th week of lockdown. You are only allowed out to buy groceries, medicine and to get tested for COVID-19. We have to submit a permit before leaving the house to buy groceries. You must wear a mask and gloves if you leave the house (you will be fined). Only one adult can go shopping and they check your temperature before you can enter the grocery store. They have also put up plexiglass between the cashiers and customers. I just read an article today that they are using AI to determine if the path you took is for essentials or not.

Dh's district is looking at Sept start but it may be pushed back more.

With a second wave likely in fall (this is very much like Spanish Flu 1918), we will need to be cautious and self distance again or it will peak

I think it will be quite some time before the world comes back to normal. One country, even if their numbers come down, can't allow outside of the country travel if another country is still not at their peak and has started to plateau. It would start all over again if they did because someone would return with it, as has happened already.
Each country might allow less restriction by the end of summer/autumn but only within their own country. I think we've all accepted it in the UK that the schools are not going back at all this academic year when they normally finish mid July. Other restriction will be piecemeal as and when they get the scientific figured that will allow it.

Until trump is made president for life.