Editor's note

Kia ora koutou and welcome to this newsletter, which marks an extraordinary week in New Zealand.

As we all prepare to go into lockdown from midnight tonight, I hope you are all well and set up for spending the weeks ahead at home. Only essential services will remain open to minimise contact between people and to slow down the spread of COVID-19.

Public health researchers have welcomed the shutdown announcement - and Michael Baker, at the University of Otago, says he felt a huge sense of relief because a lockdown gives New Zealand a chance to change the course of the pandemic. With cases now on an exponential climb, he expects it could take more than two weeks before we start to see the number of new cases level off and perhaps decline.

As University of Waikato law expert Alexander Gillespie writes, the police and medical officials already have certain powers under existing laws to control people’s movement, but the prime minister has foreshadowed she will also declare a state of emergency.

Staying at home and keeping safe is not easy for everyone though. More than 300,000 people living in New Zealand are migrants without residence status, here on a temporary work, student or family visa. Many work in key roles that will help us through the COVID-19 pandemic - and University of Waikato researcher Francis Collins argues that people on temporary permits must be given equal access to health and social services.

There are also tens of thousands of New Zealanders who don’t have a secure home, or enough living space to avoid close or prolonged contact with others. University of Otago housing researcher Clare Aspinall writes that looking after the health of New Zealanders who are homeless, or living in crowded or emergency accommodation, has never been more urgent.

We will continue to cover the COVID-19 crisis across all of The Conversation’s editions and bring you other stories to read while we all adjust to lockdown conditions.

Kia kaha everyone, take care and look out for each other. He mini nunui ki a koutou katoa.

Veronika Meduna

New Zealand Editor

Top stories

NZ Prime Minister's Office

‘Overjoyed’: a leading health expert on New Zealand’s coronavirus shutdown, and the challenging weeks ahead

Michael Baker, University of Otago

Overjoyed. That's not a word epidemiologists normally use, but that's how I felt after hearing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's announcement of New Zealand's COVID-19 lockdown from Wednesday night.

Shutterstock

As NZ goes into lockdown, authorities have new powers to make sure people obey the rules

Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato

New Zealanders are preparing to stay at home for four weeks to stop the spread of COVID-19. Under existing laws, people who flout lockdown rules could face fines or six months in jail.

Shutterstock

Caring for 300,000 temporary migrants in New Zealand is a crucial missing link in our coronavirus response

Francis L. Collins, University of Waikato

More than one-in-16 people in New Zealand is a migrant without residence status. For everyone's sake, to contain COVID-19 we need to ensure those 300,00 people can access health and social services.

Clare Aspinall

Self-isolating for coronavirus is impossible for tens of thousands of New Zealanders – unless we help them fast

Clare Aspinall, University of Otago

Tens of thousands of New Zealanders don't have secure or adequate accommodation – so how can they safely self-isolate in NZ's lockdown? But there are solutions – and here's where to start.

From The Conversation's international editions

Coronavirus weekly: as the virus spreads, economies grind to halt

Martin La Monica, The Conversation

Citizens around the world look warily at the rates of illnesses and deaths at home and abroad as the economic effects of COVID-19 start to hit.

Working from home: what are your employer’s responsibilities, and what are yours?

Robin Price, CQUniversity Australia; Linda Colley, CQUniversity Australia

Working from home changes your relationship with your workplace, but not the obligations you and your employer owe each other.

‘Click for urgent coronavirus update’: how working from home may be exposing us to cybercrime

Craig Valli, Edith Cowan University

Instead of going after large corporate networks, which often have multiple defenses, cybercriminals can now simply target people's home networks.

Florence Nightingale: a pioneer of hand washing and hygiene for health

Richard Bates, University of Nottingham

The Lady with the Lamp also did some of her most important work from home.

Coronavirus: the conversation we should have with our loved ones now – leading medic

Dominic Wilkinson, University of Oxford

What treatment do you want if you fall critically ill?

Anxiety about coronavirus can increase the risk of infection — but exercise can help

Jennifer J. Heisz, McMaster University

The immune system can respond to stress in ways that harm health. But there's a stress-buster that can help keep you calm and healthy: exercise.

Police and governments may increasingly adopt surveillance technologies in response to coronavirus fears

Joe Masoodi, Queen's University, Ontario

Recently, police forces have come under criticism for their engagement of facial recognition technologies. But pandemic response plans may increasingly incorporate surveillance.

Pandemics act on social fault lines: lessons for COVID-19 from HIV and AIDS

Carla Tsampiras, University of Cape Town

The agents causing illness do not care for our assumptions about our alleged superiority on the planet, nor do they discriminate.