Covid fear keeping people at home
There’s no lockdown currently in place but the fear of catching Covid-19 is making people stay home and businesses are feeling the pinch.
Early morning traffic feels like half what it usually is, car parks are empty with employees working from home, shoppers aren’t hitting the pavement, and cafe´s and restaurants are reducing hours to match.
Taranaki towns are feeling eerie and empty.
For Three Sisters Brewery, last week was the quietest it had experienced since its Devon St West store opened in New Plymouth just over a year ago.
‘‘It’s been unusually quiet, it’s slower than level 2 that we used to have,’’ co-owner Joe Emans said.
‘‘A lot of the office workers are working from home, we tend to get the after work crowd and if people aren’t at work, they’re not going out for drinks after.’’
Case numbers in Taranaki shot up in seven days. On Friday, there were 273 new cases with 1301 active cases in the region. Seven days earlier, there were 42 new cases announced and 134 active cases.
Emans said they had reduced their opening hours to be closed on a Wednesday and cut down staff hours to combat the downturn.
‘‘It’s a difficult circumstance, and it’s tricky to get staffing levels right at the best of times.’’
Retail is taking a hit too, despite the country’s Covid-19 management now being in phase 3, which significantly reduces the number of people who have to isolate around every positive case.
‘‘There’s a lot of anxiety, more so than last time around,’’ said Maree Wiki, owner of Flora and Co, on Devon St West. ‘‘All business owners are feeling it.’’
Wiki had noticed foot traffic in the CBD was significantly down and people were avoiding the city centre as a whole. Taranaki was now experiencing what bigger cities in the country had been dealing with, she said.
‘‘Customers are saying this is the last time they’re coming in, and they’ve got what they need, so they’ll stay out of town now.
‘‘This is going to be the year that we feel it.’’
Amy Byers, owner of Hāwera florist and gift store Maple and Wild, said she had noticed a downturn and not just in-store.
‘‘When I’m out and about, it seems very easy to find a car park. I think it is Covid related, fear being a major factor, but I also believe habits have changed over the past two years.’’
While Byers said people didn’t seem overtly anxious, shoppers were flat.
She said she would be putting more focus into an online presence to adapt to the tough times.
Taranaki Chamber of Commerce chief executive Arun Chaudhari echoed that foot traffic was down in in New Plymouth and restaurants and accommodation were experiencing huge amounts of cancellations.
His advice was to be resilient and adapt. ‘‘People need to be understanding as these are not normal times.’’
Chaudhari encouraged people to support local where they could. If people don’t want to go out, he said to get things delivered.
‘‘Put that money back into the community.’’
Covid fear was happening in every sector in the community, he said.
From no known Omicron cases at any schools a few weeks ago, many schools in Taranaki are now known to have had cases of Covid within their community.
Devon Intermediate principal Jenny Gellen said they had a couple of parents pull their kids out of school to keep them safe.
‘‘A couple, not many at all, but I completely understand their concerns in the current climate. So we’re supporting them with providing the children with work.’’
Gellen hoped the number of children out of school wouldn’t grow, as the schools were doing everything they could to keep the kids safe.
There were so many protocols in place at times it could even feel a bit overkill, she said, but she’d rather that than sick kids.
‘‘You don’t know day to day how many kids are going be selfisolating because somebody in their family has got it or being kept at home because parents are concerned.’’
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