OPINION: The next 24 to 48 hours is crucial and will decide whether Auckland steps up the alert levels into some form of partial lockdown for the third time.
We still don't know how many people are truly infected after this last mini-outbreak and that's why testing and contact tracing is so damn important.
Don't close testing sites.
But this virus is on the march, it doesn't give up.
So, start thinking: Were you at The Malt in Greenhithe last Friday? Have you been to the gym that's now closed for five days? Or are you a teacher or student at Rangitoto College and feeling crook?
Here's the truly unpalatable bit that may require some tough decision making: are you, are we, about to transport the virus you don't even know you have outside of Auckland as hundreds of thousands of us take off for the long weekend?
Should the Government stop us from travelling this Labour weekend?
How well contained really is this outbreak?
Are we confident enough to allow hundreds of thousands of Aucklanders to be potential superspreaders as they dart in all sorts of directions outside of Auckland from today?
I shudder at the thought. Perhaps we should hit the road now so the Government doesn't get the chance to stop us.
But COVID does not take a break - we do.
We get complacent. And then, even with the best defence system in the world, COVID eventually finds a way.
The port worker who got this virus had just three minutes of contact with a COVID carrier and he was wearing his PPE.
We need to check, check again, and check another hundred times after that our wider border management. Are ports now the weak point?
Why are we allowing international workers and ship crews to fly into the country and do just a few days in isolation, no test, before they join their vessel?
Best practice? Hardly.
So, can we still go away this weekend? Yes, for now.
And Christmas is still on, but hold on tight.
Duncan Garner hosts The AM Show.
