There will be a momentous shift in the country’s pandemic approach next week, doing away with eliminating the virus and instead trying to chart a way to live with Covid-19, Justin Giovannetti writes in The Bulletin.
Red, orange and green. Borrowing a phrase from overseas, New Zealand now has a freedom day: December 3. On that day next week the alert level system will become history and the country will move to the new traffic light system. It’s a momentous shift for the country’s approach to Covid-19. As Stuff reports, the new system doesn’t have any national lockdowns or mass school closures built into it. For the vaccinated, life going forward will have about the same level of freedoms under the strictest red setting as under level two currently. However, for the unvaccinated, most New Zealand businesses other than supermarkets and pharmacies will become off-limits from next week.
“The hard truth is that delta is here and not going away, but New Zealand is well set to tackle it because of our high vaccination rates and our latest safety measures,” the prime minister said yesterday.
Cabinet will announce next Monday what colour each region will move to. Auckland is headed to red, every other region will be either red or orange depending on local vaccination levels, active cases and other factors.
A preview of what’s to come. The new traffic light system depends on vaccine passes, which have now been downloaded by more than one million New Zealanders. To help test the system, Auckland hairdressers and barbers can open from this Thursday as long as fully vaccinated clients with vaccine passes book a spot. The NZ Herald reports that the scissors and clippers of the city are sure to be busy taming many unruly locks after nearly 100 days of lockdown.
A reminder of how the traffic light system works. Alice Neville has written an explainer for The Spinoff about how the new traffic light system works. It’s sure to help clear up some confusion. Based on new polling from Newshub, two-thirds of New Zealanders don’t quite understand the traffic light framework. However, some of the uncertainty might be warranted. The actual legislation necessary for the system is only expected to be introduced in parliament later today and will be pushed through the chamber by Labour’s majority with minimal debate this week. Analysis from the Ministry of Justice of how the system will comply with the Bill of Rights hasn’t been made public yet. This is far from unprecedented in the era of Covid-19, but it’s poor law-making.
International travel wasn’t mentioned yesterday. The government still hasn’t unveiled plans for when Aotearoa can connect with the world, much to the disappointment of New Zealanders overseas. Air New Zealand responded by cancelling most of its scheduled flights to Australia between now and Christmas, nearly 1000, according to Stuff. Across the Tasman, Australia is moving ahead with plans to open up its borders further. As ABC reports, fully vaccinated international students and workers holding visas will be allowed to travel to Australia from next week, along with tourists from Japan and South Korea.
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