The ’Plan B’ group of academics campaigning against lockdown say the Government’s decision to finally end the lockdown and move to “Level 1” is justified because the spread of the virus is clearly already waning, including internationally.

Spokesperson Simon Thornley says the lockdown was held for too long.

“We believe that the lockdown could have been ended much earlier, when it was clear that hospitals and intensive care units were not under threat in New Zealand from the virus.

“Evidence now shows that lockdown policies are not effective at reducing spread.

“Now, spread of the virus is waning. The threat of secondary waves is small, and scientific evidence indicates that widespread immunity or lack of susceptibility is likely.”

Thornley warned against repeating the lockdown mistake by also waiting too long to open the borders.

“Slovenia and Italy have now opened their borders to European Union citizens without the requirement for quarantine from mid-May. These countries have not had second waves of infection (Figure 1). If these trends continue and are replicated by other countries that open their borders, then it would indicate that we could safely return to border normality much earlier than the Government might be planning.”

Source: https://sithor.shinyapps.io/coronavirus/

Figure 1. Cases per day of Covid-19 for Italy and Slovenia, countries that have opened their borders to EU citizens without the quarantine since mid-May.

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