Auckland microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles says "Stay In Your Bubble"

David from Papamoa Beach

So, what makes a bubble?
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For the vast majority of us, it will just be the people we are living with. For people with shared custody of children, the bubble will cover the houses the children move between. If a blended family covers three or more households, that ends up being a pretty big bubble, so please think about whether it is best for some of the children not to move between their families. This will be difficult, but the aim is to keep the bubbles small and stop the spread of the virus.

If older relatives are able to safely live on their own, then they should stay as their own bubble. If you live alone, and you have a close friend who lives alone, then the two of you can form a bubble and move between your two homes. If you have flatmates and your partner has flatmates, you can’t form a bubble unless one of you moves in with the other.

Stay at home
I’ve been getting lots of questions about what we can and can’t do while we are at level four. Today the prime minister was really clear on this. Her advice: Act like you have Covid-19. Minimize the time you spend outside your home. That means no going for a leisurely drive or driving to the beach. What if you had an accident or your car broke down? There won’t be a coastguard to get us out of a pickle, so no boating or surfing.


You can go for a walk or a bike ride around your neighbourhood to get some exercise. You can go out to get essentials like food. But stay away from other people. No stopping to chat – even if you are two metres away from each other. Just give a wave and keep moving. Because the virus can live on surfaces for up to three days, don’t take your kids to the playground. Stay at home.

Remember, while we are physically distancing ourselves from everyone outside our bubble for the next few weeks, it’s important we stay socially connected. So be sure to schedule some online coffee mornings or dinner parties.

For the next few weeks, our essential workers will have to be outside their bubbles keeping things going so we can stay in ours. That means during this lockdown we have a one really important job to do. And that is to save lives. And we do that by making sure we don’t burst any bubbles.