So, as in my last post, we’re still in the thick of the delta outbreak here in Aotearoa, as the chart below shows. It’s still mainly Auckland, with various other pockets around the country, including the South Island. Though somehow, Wellington continues to avoid having cases. Which is kind of amazing because there was a big anti-lockdown protest at Parliament the other week, with people travelling from across the country to attend, and I think we all assumed cases would skyrocket here after that.
The government announced an end to the elimination strategy and Covid-19 Alert Level system that we’ve been following since March 2020. Instead, at 11.59pm on Thursday 2 December, we’ll be moving to the Covid-19 Protection Framework traffic light system of Red, Orange, and Green, with details to be announced closer to the date about which regions of the country will be moving to which colour. Basically, under the traffic light framework, there are different limits in place for each colour, and also depending on whether people have been vaccinated or not.
So, for most of us, the traffic light system just means downloading a copy of My Vaccine Pass to your phone, and scanning in to venues that require a vaccine pass for entry (or bringing a printout of it with you). For fully vaccinated people, there aren’t that many limits in place, beyond wearing a mask and continuing to scan in/record your movements. But unvaccinated people will be unable to use gyms, salons, dine in at cafes, or go to events until we are at green (lowest risk). And we’ve already been told that no part of the country will be at green just yet while we’re still in the midst of the current outbreak.
We’ve all had a lot of time to get used to the Alert Level system, and the Protection Framework is a change in approach and will be an adjustment. There are lots of conversations happening about what places need vaccine passes for entry, and which ones don’t. For example, Te Papa, the National Museum, has just announced that they will require vaccine passes for entry for everyone about the age of 12, including staff and contractors. Considering how many children visit the museum who aren’t yet eligible to be vaccinated, this policy is entirely sensible in order to keep everyone as safe as possible.
But, some places are hitting back. Several bakeries and cafes have announced that they will serve anyone who comes in the door, and won’t be checking vaccine passes. For me, this immediately puts them on the ‘do not patronise’ list, regardless of how good the sourdough is. There’s been a lot of, ‘we never thought we’d have to deal with things like this when we opened our cafe 8 years ago…‘ on social media. Which I do get – no one (aside from maybe infectious disease experts) could have anticipated the pandemic.
But here we are, nearly 2 years into it. This is the current reality, and we can’t just pretend like things are suddenly back to business as usual. The rules aren’t arbitrary – they’re in place for a reason. And considering how successful NZ’s approach has been so far, we should be grateful for how detailed and well thought out the frameworks are, even if everyone is totally covid-fatigued right now.
A cafe that we went to earlier this week has since come out on their Instagram page as being “pro-choice”, stating that they “won’t discriminate” against people who aren’t vaccinated.
This pisses me off for a number of reasons:
One, the co-opting of the phrase ‘pro-choice’ to be about vaccination rather than reproductive rights (which we are still very much fighting for, by the way)
Two, you’re basically saying that you care more about making money and doing things the same as always, rather than following rules that are designed to save lives.
Three, you’re actively putting your staff at risk by allowing them to come into close contact with unvaccinated people, which then puts their families at risk (especially if they have kids who are too young to be vaccinated yet since the vaccine has still only been approved for ages 12 and up here in NZ). 36% of cases in this outbreak have been children under 19, and nearly 20% have been under 12.
Four, one of the cafes in question is known for having told two women eating there not to hold hands, so clearly it’s only certain types of discrimination that they care about…
Honestly, I could keep going, but I won’t.
The whole thing just does my head in. It’s all so insular and selfish. All you have to do is take one look at everywhere else in the world to know that we actually do need public health guidelines in place. And that in order for them to work, everyone has to follow them…
In other news entirely, this week Laura and I celebrated our anniversary – 11 years together, and 7 years married. We often take a trip this time of year, as Facebook likes to remind me. The original plan for this year was driving up to Waihi, in the Coromandel in the upper North Island. But with case numbers rising and locations of interest popping up across the motu, we decided it wasn’t worth taking a big road trip.
Instead, as we’d already arranged to take the time off, we decided to have a combination staycation at home, plus a few nights away much closer to home in the Wairarapa so we could go for some walks in the area that I had never done before. And just relax with a nice wine…
Our first walk was the Putangirua Pinnacles along the southern Wairarapa coastline. The weather forecast was for clouds and a bit of rain, but in actuality we had an absolute stunner of a day.
Then we went to Kiriwhakapapa, and did the walk to Blue Range Hut. There’s something so magical about walking through ancient rainforest and just feeling completely removed from it all.
And finally, we visited Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre and did their long walk around the back, which we hadn’t done before (though we had done their shorter walks previously).
We also managed to get together with some friends we hadn’t seen since pre-pandemic, and have a little barbecue and shared meal outside in our friend’s backyard, in the knowledge that we were all fully vaccinated, and all on the same page. And it was so incredibly nice to just hang out and catch-up, and sit outside together listening to kd lang, and Cowboy Junkies, and Sarah McLachlan and kind of just feel like old times.
My Life in Aotearoa New Zealand 