By the middle of June, it seemed that Covid-19 might be gone from New Zealand because there were no new cases for 23 days.
However, many New Zealanders have been returning home from overseas, and people have been complaining that the quarantine processes have been too casual.
On the 16th of June, we discovered that two New Zealanders returning from the UK had developed Covid-19. They are sisters who were allowed to leave quarantine early for compassionate reasons – to visit a dying parent. They were given a compassionate exemption. An exemption means someone has special permission to break a rule.
They arrived at Auckland airport, stayed in quarantine at a hotel in Auckland for 9 days and then were allowed to drive from Auckland to Wellington. When they were released from quarantine, it was five days early, and they were not tested for Covid-19. One of the women had a cough, but she thought it was just her asthma.
As they drove to Wellington, they avoided contact with other people. There was one time that they briefly met with a friend to ask for help because they were lost in Auckland. When they got to Wellington, they were tested for Covid-19 and found they both have this virus.
On the 18th of June, we learned that one man who has returned from Pakistan has Covid-19. He is staying in quarantine at an Auckland hotel.
So New Zealand now has three new cases. Many New Zealanders are upset that Covid-19 is back. They worry that there could be more cases in the future because nearly 200 people have been allowed to leave quarantine early with compassionate exemptions.
The Prime Minister has now said there will be no more compassionate exemptions. The army will ensure that quarantine is managed more carefully in the future, and the Ministry of Health will search for people that the patients had contact with. This is called contact tracing.
We all hope that the three sick will recover, and that the virus will be easily contained by means of contact tracing. We must all remember that public hygiene is still very important, and we must get tested if we get sick.
Vocabulary:
case: when a person is sick, we call them a patient. But when we want to talk about the sickness, we call it a case. For example: Jenny is a covid-19 patient. New Zealand has had 1157 cases of covid-19.
processes: a system of rules and the ways that things should be done
casual: not planned or serious
compassionate: kind, loving
ensure: make sure
recover: get better
contained: stopped from spreading by means of: this is a preposition phrase that shows us how something will be done
by means of: this is a preposition phrase that shows us how something will be done
asthma: a sickness that is a little bit like an allergy that makes people cough
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I can’t see any contact email for you.
I am an esl tutor and have followed your site.
It seems the site has been updated, and is a little difficult to navigate.
You advertised a new book for intermediate students. I can’t follow the directions for accessing this book. Is it an e-book or a hardcopy book? How much is it?
What articles does it have have? Are these articles also on the eslnews website?
I found I was on a page ‘smash …’? What is this site? Can we still access the old (user friendly) site, please?
I look forward to your reply.
Hi Linda
Sorry about not being able to find a contact, I’ll update that and also try to make the changes clearer. We have just finished moving the website to a New Zealand webhost, Webslice, although that shouldn’t make any difference to the useability of the site. In order to pay for webhosting, I’ve introduced a wordbook, and will probably introduce more in the future. It is available as a pdf file from a website called smashwords, which is equipped to sell e-books. The book is available for free, or in return for a donation. The first workbook is at intermediate level and focuses on different kinds of noun phrases, offering 10 reading comprehension activities and encouraging identification of noun phrases. If you download the book, you can print it out freely for use in the classroom or for self-study. In order to be able to put this link in, I did have to change the template, but again, it should be pretty much the same in terms of navigation. Can you let me know which aspects of navigation are causing you strife? I’ll be happy to make changes for ease of use. 🙂
Thanks for using the website! I’d also been using it as a teacher for over 15 years before I took over on managing it.
best regards
Melissa
Yes, similar situation for me (8.7.20). How much is the book? Can’t find the download link. The site where the book is advertised seems to be inactive.
Hi Ludo, I will put more information about the book in the sidebar. Sorry for the confusion.