In the blue corner

It was encouraging to see the roll out of several Covid-19 vaccines late last year, the success of which will eventually lead to borders re-opening and a return to some form of normality.

However, with the emergence of the new B117 strain, which is much more infectious than previous strains, this could be some way off.

The new strain has forced countries like England back into lockdown.

Unfortunately, we have missed the opportunity to have a vaccine rolled out here before the new strain made its way to our borders. Border staff and those working in managed isolation facilities will have to be much more vigilant to keep the virus contained.

It is encouraging to see that the National Party’s election policy of requiring a negative pre-departure Covid19 test for those wishing to travel to New Zealand has been finally adopted.

However, this will not come into effect until January 15, and it will only apply to those coming from the United Kingdom or the United States. Nevertheless, it is a necessary step in the right direction.

While increased vigilance is necessary on all fronts, we could and should learn from countries such as Taiwan that have a much superior track and trace system.

Such a system, if adopted here, would be a huge improvement on our bungled track and tracing system whose shortcomings were highlighted in the Surveillance and Testing Strategy Groups advisory report.

This report is incredibly embarrassing for the Government and the Ministry of Health, which is why the Government sat on it for months and only released it just before Christmas.

Since October New Zealanders have been able to travel freely to Australia. However, it is still unclear when the same will happen here. This lack of certainty continues to hinder New Zealand’s economic recovery.

It is also estimated that 40 per cent of those in MIQ facilities are from Australia. A travel bubble with appropriate health protocols, would free up spaces for others needing to travel to New Zealand for compassionate reasons or critical industry shortages. We can only hope that we do better in these areas so plans to establish travel bubbles are more than meaningless announcements to generate publicity, as it unfortunately appears they have been to date.

We start 2021 with the hope that improvements in our management of Covid-19 will allow a return to normal, but this depends on strong and decisive action – something that has been lacking.