Covid Watch

Could it be they have finally got the message?

We are not just going to Green; it isn't even a thing. Because, it appears, the whole mad Traffic Light System is going altogether.

As always, it's a game of tease and wait, no comment, hints, and more no comments.

When they finally sit down to work out Covid settings, whenever that is, given they officially only say a "couple of weeks”, but they have been saying that for over a week. But when they finally work it out, I have no doubt they'll announce an announcement of an announcement or date sometime that isn't the time they are making the initial announcement.

If we can be free of all this by Christmas, psychologically the country will be helped immeasurably. The psychological damage done to us over the past couple of years is a crime.

I still see people daily walking around with masks on outside in the fresh air. Not because it makes any difference, but because they have been bullied into certain behaviour they have never been bullied into before. We didn’t wear masks before, but we wear them now for a caseload that has plummeted and doesn’t affect us anymore.

The psychology of the Government finally cutting us loose will be good for everyone. It'll also be good for the tangibles like tourism as we join the rest of the world in the new normal.

The fact is the Traffic Light System was a con anyway. We were in Red and Orange at stages, but when you looked at the official guidelines as to what was needed or required for us to be in those settings, we weren't.

Rules got made up on the fly and the health system was strained, or not strained, based on politics not health.

It's one of the many things that has undone the Government in terms of honesty and credibility. We looked at the so-called rules, looked at the reality, and too often they didn’t match.

The fact we are still in Orange today is nuts. The fact the rules aren't followed by many around masks is no surprise. The fact they are still advertising boosters is equally mad.

Covid is over. Not literally, literally, it may never be over. But in terms of the power of us all moving on, it's over.

And the sooner the power freaks who have set all these mad rules unlock the shackles, the better.

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I think the only feasible thing that can happen now with the mask mandate is that they get rid of it.

When even the Government’s favourite boffin (Michael Baker) says masks aren’t that essential anymore, you’ve got to wonder whose left supporting them. Add to that the fact they’re even up for discussion – the fact they’re now being talked about by the PM herself as something we may be able to review – and you can kiss the mandate goodbye. Because what happens when people in high places start questioning stuff, is that the general public get a whiff of it, and just go ahead and ditch them anyway.

Where we live rurally, masks have been a distant memory for a while now. Most of our local shops don’t bother, it’s rare to see people in them, I’m not sure if other rural parts of the country are the same but I think it’s largely a city thing these days. Wellington I hear, (unsurprisingly) is still hot on masks, Auckland is hit and miss, some parts of the city still do them, others don’t bother. You certainly don’t get told off anymore if you wander into a shop without one. In fact more often than not if it’s an owner operated store the staff aren’t wearing them either, it’s just the chains and franchises like supermarkets who’re still having to wear them. 

But I was in a supermarket yesterday and the majority of shoppers were not in masks. And no one told them to put one on either. Schools are over it, both the teachers and the kids. The students are sick of wearing them, the teachers are sick of enforcing the wearing of them. I’m glad we’ve finally reached this point where losing the masks has gained momentum. I think it’s a lot to do with the borders opening and so many Kiwis getting out to travel and seeing for themselves that the rest of the world has moved on from Covid. 

Travelling around without a mask and then coming back to New Zealand and suddenly everyone has them on, feels weird, and more people are now realising that. That’s before we get to the tourists who arrive and go – what the heck's happening here. It makes us look backward and what we now know is that it is a factor in putting international visitors off. In fact our whole orange light is. I argued a couple of weeks ago that we needed to go to a green light and someone texted me and rightly said – why a green light? There should be no light system at all. And that’s true. It’s no longer relevant. And it feels like the Government’s finally getting to that point too. 

That coupled with the fact that all their polling will be telling them how over it people are. I think we, like Australia, will ditch the masks apart from places like maybe hospitals or rest homes and other high risk areas. But the decision won’t be because of health reasons or because Michael Baker said so, it’ll be because it’s politically advantageous to the Government to do so. 

When you’ve had a few weeks like this government's having, and momentum is slipping away from you at the pace it currently is, ditching masks and traffic lights suddenly becomes very politically attractive. The country needs some much needed positivity.. and a boost in our freedoms may be just the tonic needed for the Government to claw back a wee bit of support.

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Masks- as we move closer to our current restrictions getting a review, will mask mandates be scrapped soon? Less people wear them out and about to public facing events nowadays, and whether or not they are still needed is facing debate.

BusinessDesk investments editor and host of the Cooking the Books podcast, Frances Cook and producer and commentator Irene Gardiner share their thoughts on the current necessity of masks, and how they still think they are useful in certain environments, such as public transport and supermarkets.

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It really feels like it’s time, doesn’t it. Time to ease mask requirements.

Not because every lucky traveller returning to New Zealand bores you with stories about how the rest of the world has moved on – forgetting where it hasn’t. Not because you’re sick of rummaging in your bag for a half decent mask, through the ones that should have been disposed of long ago or are in need of a wash. And not because spring is here - New Zealand had its highest Covid case numbers during the surge last summer.

It’s time because case numbers and hospitalisations have been dropping, less people are wearing masks in public places and, according to even the epidemiologists, mask wearing is less critical.

Reducing mandates for mask wearing is one of the major changes that will happen if New Zealand drops from the orange traffic light setting to the green traffic light setting – or possibly to a whole new Covid management system. At green, masks will still be encouraged indoors but no longer required at work places.

Advice is currently being sought on how to make the step towards dropping mask wearing requirements, while keeping vulnerable members of our communities safe. The disability sector should feel aggrieved they were given only 24 hours to provide feedback to the government – it sounds like lip service, but I do hope they’re heard.

It makes sense mask wearing will continuing in some areas – such as health services, aged care services and residential services for vulnerable people. I can’t see my GP clinic letting me into the building mask-free in the foreseeable future.

Like most people I don’t enjoy wearing a mask, but out of respect for others, I have worn one where required. I will at green still put a mask on in locations where there’s a valid reason for it and where I’m asked to. It’s just a mask.

But you only have to look around to see that fewer people are wearing masks. I was stunned a couple of months ago to turn up to a crowded cinema complex, which had been very diligent checking vaccine passes and masks on entry, to find hundreds of people attending a film screening without masks.

I felt I’d missed that memo. It was like masks had just gone overnight.

We’re seeing fewer masks in supermarkets, malls, retail, hospo and schools. I attended the Auckland Writers Festival Gala evening last week and there was no pressure to wear a mask and many didn’t.

The nation’s lagging enthusiasm or acceptance for wearing masks will no doubt be considered as the Government reviews the traffic light framework on September 12th. As we’ve seen from the Government this week, it can make surprisingly quick decisions on unpopular policy if it so chooses.

Moving to green means what are requirements in orange become suggestions. The Government may not be prepared to revert to ‘normal’ just yet, but it does seem likely a move will be made on masks. The timing feels right. Wear a mask, or not; it should be up to you.

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Almost a hundred police staff are taking a personal grievance over their treatment for refusing to get the Covid vaccine.

The vaccine mandate for Police was overturned in the High Court in February - and 91 people are now complaining about what's happened since they got back to work.

Employment lawyer Chris Scarrott told Heather du Plessis-Allan there needs to be good rationale for any vaccine policy - whether enforced by Government or the Police themselves.

He says it's about looking at each of the roles and assessing whether there are particular reasons to protect health and safety.

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Australia has announced an update to their Covid isolation requirements- people will now only be required to isolate for 5 days instead of 7. Australian correspondent shares the public reaction and mass confusion with Kate Hawkesby. 

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Shipment delays to Oceania are on the rise and hitting New Zealand hard according to an international logistics company.

Project44 data comparing pre-Covid 2019 to the third quarter of 2022, shows shipment delays from china to new Zealand jumped a whopping 6764 percent.

Representative of the NZ Council of Cargo Owners Simon Beale tells Mike Hosking that lockdowns in China have contributed to the rise in shipping delays.

“We’ve had major issues here again with the lockdowns in Shanghai, where we had the first lot of products in and out of other ports- while they have lockdowns, there are a lot of containers that aren’t available to be used in other regions as well, your capacity gets restricted .”

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“All I do is cry” was the quote that broke my heart over the weekend.

The ODT had a story about the state of Queenstown at the moment, and it talked to café and restaurant owners who’re still in dire straits over lack of staff. They claim there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, and that this is worse than Covid was. 

Hospitality NZ’s regional manager was quoted as saying that it’s such a pressure cooker situation that, ''It's becoming a luxury for our operators to open at the moment.'' Imagine that. A luxury to even open your doors.

As a business, that has to be soul destroying. They’re over worked, under staffed and burning out. And I feel for them. Because they’ve been promised time and time again that it will get fixed, and it just isn’t getting fixed. So much so, that some operators are leaving hospo altogether.

One café operator said that .. ''chefs don't want to be chefs anymore — [they’ll] go work as a labourer instead, and they get paid really, really well to do that.'' Even though this café owner argues she still pays top end.  

Famous Queenstown establishment The Cow, it’s co-owner said the same thing, ..”there are no new people at all, you could put an ad out, '$100 an hour, they're not going to turn up… in 21 years ''I've never seen anything like this before..”

He’s apparently now having to close two nights a week. And that’s a familiar story for many operators, not just hospo.

I heard from friends returning from Queenstown the other day that they were shocked at how much was shut, how many cafes were closed, or operating at half steam still, how many shops had staff wanted signs in their windows, how down and out many of the business owners were.

The vibe had changed they said, it felt different and it felt desperate. And that’s because they are desperate. And they don’t see an end in sight. 

One of the café owners said.. ''We've got people that want to come and work for us but they can't find anywhere to live, so they're now looking for jobs that have accommodation with them.''

She said it’s ‘more stressful than Covid 'because at least [with Covid] you knew when you were going to get out of it, but this, you just don't know.'' So they’re at breaking point many of them, without a way out.

They’re not the Government’s biggest fans, as you can imagine.

Lone Star’s owner slammed the Government for its ''lack of conviction to try and fix it''. And that’s got to sting because it’s not like they haven’t been banging on about how bad it is for a long time, it’s not like Ministers don’t know what’s happening in Queenstown.

‘Restricting the labour market to drive up wages’, as Lone Star’s owner accuses the Government of doing, isn’t working. As The Cow’s co-owner said, it’s not about how much you pay, it’s the fact there’s nobody there to pay it to. There’s just no workforce.

So how bad does it have to get, before the Government actually gets more people into this country?

Not just 'opening up opportunities’ for them to come, but actually getting them in.

Aged care, tourism and the health sector I'm sure would love to know the answer to that question too.

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In the wake of a couple of revealing surveys, I’m pleased to see businesses agitating for change a bit more. I’m talking about the traffic light system.

Two surveys recently showed how much we’re fed up with all this.

TV1 had a survey showing 65 percent of us want all Covid restrictions dropped, not surprising at all.

Then a survey the Government did showed them the reality of what’s going on – fewer of us are wearing masks, fewer of us are reporting RAT results, fewer of us are willing to isolate for seven days.

So given that, why are we still sitting in Orange with all these restrictions?

We’re over it. And so it turns out are international tourists. If we truly want to be an open country, ready for business and tourism and holiday makers, then we need to unshackle ourselves from all this ideology keeping us looking like a hermit kingdom.

“Global hotels and management operator Accor wants New Zealand to move to a green light setting as the industry works to bring international tourism back to pre-pandemic levels..” it was reported yesterday, they want to get the message out that we are indeed “fully completely open” for business. 

Accor Pacific’s Chief Exec was reported as saying that ‘green is that signal.’

She also said that, “some tourists were cautious about travelling to New Zealand under the orange light status.”

And I’m not surprised, it’s out of kilter with where the rest of the world is at, it makes it look like we have a problem, which we don’t, it makes us look backward and introspective.

No one feels that more acutely than the Kiwis currently all returning from their overseas jaunts to Europe or warmer climes.

Having gallivanted around the world mask-less and without any news of Covid interrupting them, they come home only to be greeted by a bunch of people in masks handing them RATs.

One to do straight away and one to do in seven more days’ time and to self-report on. 

How many do you reckon are doing that? My hunch is zero. Not even the acolytes are doing it.

But if we are trying to be truly competitive and get back to pre-pandemic levels with tourism and travel, then surely we have no choice but to remove all this bureaucracy and BS.

Accor for their part [were reported saying] that, we’re “competing with the rest of the world for international tourists and [we] needed to make it clear that it was easy for tourists to come and go.”

We’re not though. We’re flagging impediments like RATs on arrival and masking up and being in an Orange setting – and that’s before we get to the part where many people won’t have a clue what that is, all they’ll know is that it doesn’t sound fully open.

Two of our kids are travelling right now, one in the States, one in Europe, both say when people hear they’re Kiwis their first response is ‘oh you guys have been locked down for ages right?’.. They go on to ask why NZ is still closed, that’s their impression.

We used to be known internationally for the All Blacks or Lord of the Rings, but sadly now when people hear you’re a Kiwi the first thing they mention is Covid and being shut. Cool. 

Great reputation that is for our little slice of what used to be paradise. It needs to change fast, and I just hope more businesses start to get more vocal with this Government on fixing it.

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