So Long, Covid
My finger are crossed that this is the last time I use my covid thumbnail photo. New Zealand has collectively decided that its done with covid even with 9000+ cases a week. (And it sounds like the US has decided the same despite 400+ covid deaths a day.) Last week the traffic light system went away, daily covid updates went away, mask mandates went away, except in a couple of settings, like healthcare and aged care facilities, and vaccine mandates will stop on the 26th. New Zealand decided that even though there are still a large number of cases each day, covid is NBD anymore.
The reaction to the news that covid protocols were going to be scrapped was generally one of understanding. No one thought or wants restrictions for longer than necessary. However, one part of the announcement had everyone scratching their heads: no more isolation requirements for household contacts. Everyone I’ve talked to said this makes absolutely no sense because all of us who caught covid either got it or gave it to family members. If they were out and about wandering around, the spread would have been so much greater than it was. The reason for chucking the household isolation requirement is purely business related. There’s a huge worker shortage right now as people ditch New Zealand for other countries and new migrant labor is hard to get. Forcing people to stay home is exacerbating the problem.
Masks, while no longer required most everywhere, are still prominent. It feels like everyone who wants to wear masks is still doing so while those who don’t want to wear masks were already flaunting the rules even before this announcement. I’d say it’s about 60% of people at the grocery store still wearing them, 50% at one school, nearly no one at another school, and perhaps 40% at shopping centres. I feel like there is pressure to ditch the mask, but I’m still wearing mine in busy indoor settings. As my hairdresser said this morning, “I feel so exposed and naked without a mask!”
Covid vaccine centres are still open, though there has been little to no information on getting second boosters for the general public. I’ve heard that they are the new(er) boosters that target the omicron variant, but I haven’t seen anything official confirming this. It will be interesting to see when there will be a change in policy. Will it be when the virus picks up speed as people completely drop masks? Or perhaps when it starts getting colder after the summer?
Life is back to “normal” and it feels a bit surreal and disheartening. It’s impossible to say whether or not we have any long-lasting takeaways from the pandemic. If anything, I feel like it has polarized people more into the “its not a big deal, fend for yourselves if you must” camp and the “its the end of the world” camp. I can only hope that the next time a pandemic circulates, Kiwis aren’t so jaded over our covid experience that we fail to take it as seriously as we did this time.
