As is often the case with crises, the coronavirus pandemic has been a boon for New Zealand’s political leadership. Jacinda Ardern’s decisive and effective health response to the virus has garnered both New Zealand and herself adoring headlines around the world, particularly in countries starving for basic governmental competence. New Zealand’s exceptional handling of the crisis is something Kiwis should be rightly proud of, as should the prime minister, who may well have secured herself another three years in power because of it.

But it’s been less good for those already on the margins, for whom weeks of lockdown has meant even greater levels of economic uncertainty and deprivation. Tens of thousands have applied for the unemployment benefit at a rate of around a thousand a day, food demand at city missions quickly shot up by magnitudes of hundreds of percent — many of them people who had never needed help before — and unemployment is expected to hit double figures.

Some of this will be solved by moving from Level 4 to 3 of lockdown. (Moving from Level 4 to Level 3 means restrictions have been relaxed, including letting families reunite, and reopening some schools and businesses.) But the fact is that New Zealand’s economic response to the crisis has fallen far short of the gold standard set by its health response. And with a global depression looming — and the ever-present threat of another lockdown should the virus come back — this bodes ill for the future.