OPINION: I think we have just had some remarkable luck in this latest COVID-19 twist. Jacinda Ardern, you are blessed, go buy a lotto ticket.
Of course, this is not official, and touch wood we're not struck down as a result, but I think we have just dodged COVID's most aggressive and threatening strain so far - the South African variant.
It's the feared one, the one that spreads so quickly the health response can't keep up. Yep that one. That's the one that got out of managed isolation and ran around Northland.
It could have been our summer catastrophe.
But in the end, this COVID-19 tough guy couldn't even latch on to her husband, who surely is her closest contact.
Think about it, day after day, night after night, morning after morning, that COVID critter had thousands of opportunities to latch on to hubby and not even he could manage to attract it.
In fact, 15 of her closest contacts have all tested negative and hundreds of staff and guests from inside the Pullman Hotel where she did her quarantine have also tested negative.
Everywhere we look - not a new case in sight.
But what this scare has done is show us how deep the coma was that the Health ministry had fallen into. If we're talking testing, then they failed.
They've had their bazooka moment, learn from it. We've all dodged the very worst of consequences I think.
So jog on New Zealand, carefully.
Duncan Garner hosts The AM Show.
