Curtain comes down on Covid-19 updates

And so it came tumbling down slowly and then all of a sudden. About 10 months after New Zealand’s Covid-19 traffic light system came into being, it has been dismantled. And with it, all but the last of our virus restrictions. After 21⁄ years of either

2 restrictions or the spectre of them, in the end the whole system has been quickly defenestrated, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern making the announcement after sharing the news of a one-off public holiday to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

The basis was that it was New Zealanders – or at least the Government on behalf of us – ‘‘taking back control’’. Ardern began her announcement – as is her wont – with a now familiar recap on why the Government did everything it did during the pandemic. The masks are gone (except in healthcare and aged care), all vaccine mandates will be scotched in a fortnight, and all vaccination requirements for travel will be gone. The only people required to isolate for seven days are those actually sick with Covid. The team of 5 million is back on its own.

‘‘Today marks a milestone in our response. Finally, rather than feeling that Covid dictates what happens to us, our lives, and our futures, we take back control,’’ Ardern said on Monday.

This is political sleight of hand.

Yes, Covid has rendered great uncertainty, but the uncertainty has been generated by the Government’s response to it, here and abroad. The changing rules, the ever-present threats of lockdowns or border closures, the everincreasing (now shrinking) apparatus of state to deal with it all.

There were good reasons for this, sensible science behind it and certainly the public was on board for a lot of it, especially the elimination strategy while it lasted. But suggesting that Covid was dictat

ing what happened is untrue. Covid determined who got sick and how sick they got. The Ardern Government determined all the rules that governed our response. Ditto for governments overseas.

Ultimately, there will probably never be widespread public agreement on which measures were justified and for how long. Most people agreed the initial response in 2020 was excellent – voters in the 2020 election certainly did – but in 2021, not so much.

There was internal logic behind it all, but looking back at the middle of 2021 now seems like a foreign land where statesanctioned freak-outs about single cases were simply par for the course, as was dobbing in neighbours and rule-breakers.

That said, it was before the vaccine. In fact, should a particularly new strain of Covid come along, we will likely see how public and political perspective has changed. The old policy tool kit won’t be pulled out again. The worm has turned, people die of Covid-related illnesses every day, and the world keeps going.

In getting rid of all the rules so quickly, the Government has finally acceded to the reality of the situation. Covid had also become a crutch for the Government, something it leaned on and relied upon. Now that’s all gone too.

Another major step was getting rid of reporting the daily case numbers. It switches to weekly.

‘‘Finally, rather than feeling that Covid dictates what happens to us, our lives, and our futures, we take back control.’’

Jacinda Ardern