Lightening the load
As New Zealand’s Covid alert levels drop once more, Aucklanders reveal the pain of carrying the weight of yo-yo lockdowns, and we investigate why we’re not using more hi-tech ways to police those in isolation
Over the past week, Sofia Nunez woke up every morning and wondered how she might get through another day of lockdown.
At 7am daily, her fiance Jonno Tucker, went to work. Nunez, 27, couldn’t go to her job as duty manager at Hugo’s Bistro in the CBD, as it was closed for a week under level 3 rules.
Bang. Closed. Just like that. As the rest of New Zealand got on with their lives Nunez would set off on a walk around her Albany neighbourhood, come back and clean the house. Then the loneliness and boredom began to descend.
On Thursday, she talked about how lockdown was affecting her mentally. ‘‘It’s impossible to plan anything. I literally just get through the day.’’
At the back of her mind was overwhelming worry: would her job survive yet another lockdown? Would another lockdown strike Auckland again? And most importantly, would her wedding be able to go ahead on April 1, or would it be cancelled yet again, forcing the couple to elope.
It’s tough being an Aucklander right now. A week ago residents there endured their fourth Covid lockdown in a year. Some say that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s plea to the team of 5 million should actually be directed at the team of 1.5 million in Auckland.
Over the week, Auckland events were cancelled or postponed: the America’s Cup, and Auckland Arts Festival, along with school camps and sporting events. Kids learned at home and tertiary students were holed up in hostels and flats doing online classes. Add to that the mental toll of wondering how long the lockdown might go on for, and psychologist Dr Kirsty Ross, of Massey University says Aucklanders will be suffering lockdown fatigue.
Yes, employees like Nunez get the wage subsidy, but the rest of the country probably doesn’t get what it’s like to be thrown in and out of lockdown. ‘‘The restaurant was just starting to get going again after the last lockdown and then it’s like, ‘here we go again’’. I have to keep staff morale up, and it’s incredibly challenging.
‘‘Everyone thinks I’m on holiday because I’m not at work. But I can’t do anything or go anywhere. I can’t see friends. It’s a mental struggle.’’
The uncertainty is also difficult. Experts have said that until New Zealand is fully vaccinated, Aucklanders can expect to be in and out of some sort of lockdown.
That worries Michael Barnett, head of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, who argues that the whole region should not be closed, but instead hotspots could be locked down. He has recommended this to authorities: that rather than shutting down the whole of Auckland, just Papatoetoe should go into level 3. ‘‘There is increasing intolerance that the whole of Auckland has been shut down, but you might be on the North Shore and feeling so distanced from South Auckland. Hamilton and other areas south of the Bombay Hills can feel almost closer to South Auckland.’’
‘‘We’ve had Covid around for a
year now and there are better ways of testing and the science has changed. Do we have to shut everything down? There has to be a better way.’’
With Auckland contributing 40 per cent of the country’s GDP, Barnett says it’s a huge economic blow. Some large businesses are continuing to function as normal, but it’s small and medium-sized businesses which are suffering.
When lockdown is over, it will take time for everything to return to normal, he says.
Auckland schools and parents are also doing it tough. Deidre Shea, principal of Onehunga College, and her team spent last Sunday preparing to start online learning the next day. Head of the Secondary Principals Association, Shea says: ‘‘The director-general of health said it’s like we’re on a rollercoaster we didn’t buy a ticket for. The lockdown is a surprise each time, but we do adjust to this being the new normal.’’
She says Covid is making some students anxious. Last year, Auckland students could earn up to 16 extra NCEA credits because they had a second lockdown. ‘‘There’s no question we’re seeing that our students are finding it tougher. It varies from person to person. When the kids come back, you can see they’re so delighted to be together again. Learning in the classroom is so much easier for some people than doing it online.’’
With the unpredictability of life wrought by Covid, Auckland event organisers have got used to turning to plan B. Wedding celebrant Yvette Reid had to cancel a wedding during the week (weddings can be held in Auckland, but only with 10 guests).
‘‘We are a bit over it here, but I’m trying to be optimistic. I support what the Government is doing.’’
Reid is also a single mother whose toddler doesn’t understand he can’t go to the playground as they’re walking past it. ‘‘It’s definitely tough to entertain kids when this is going on.’’
Efeso Collins, a Manukau ward councillor, has spoken out about the demands, particularly those in South Auckland, where the recent cluster was. ‘‘It’s draining. There’s definitely lockdown fatigue and also fear for the essential workers, the majority of who are in South Auckland. We miss our work and our routines.
‘‘We might be a team of 5 million, but we’re relying on about 400,000 South Aucklanders who are carrying the baton.’’
The threat of more level 3 or even level 4 restrictions hangs over the city. ‘‘We feel like we’re in a constant state of flux. I hope the rest of the country cheer us on. But resentment builds when they feel like they’re being attacked,’’ says Collins, who agrees with mayor Phil Goff that Aucklanders should get priority for vaccines.
In the UK, psychologists talk pandemic burnout. Parts of the UK have been in and out of lockdown for the past year.
Ross says pandemic fatigue could be a reality.
‘‘Auckland has done it really tough and it’s hard when your experience is different to others. People often feel resentful when they feel they are having to do something extra over and above others and when their efforts are not being appreciated, that they are being taken for granted or unnoticed. The fallout from these lockdowns for Auckland – financially, emotionally, practically – will be felt for a long time to come, and there is a risk that this will be forgotten over time.’’
Ross, of Massey, says the current lockdowns might seem to have ‘‘frustrative non-reward’’. Almost a year ago, the whole country went into level 4 and we tried to eliminate Covid whereas now the virus is localised, and it doesn’t feel as dangerous. The threat doesn’t feel quite so real so Aucklanders might feel like, what’s the point?’.
Sarah Brown, an Auckland psychoanalyst psychotherapist, agrees. ‘‘But we’re not living amongst a pandemic, we are living with the threat of it, so the confusion and disorientation here in Auckland can feel very discombobulating. There’s a sense of in and out, back and forth, with unknown endings, and that brings on the fatigue especially for Aucklanders.
‘‘I wouldn’t call it pandemic fatigue because compared to the rest of the world we are having a different experience.
‘‘We’re not living in a society which has been ravaged by Covid, rather we are living within a society that is trying to prevent that.
‘‘I’ve noticed during this lockdown that there’s definitely an inability to focus and just that we’re living with a lack of certainty.
‘‘We have an acceptance this is happening but there’s definitely a despondency.
‘‘Human beings are interdependent, so it’s problematic when our autonomy is taken away and also when our wider relationships and connections are taken from us.’’
‘‘Everyone thinks I’m on holiday because I’m not at work. But I can’t do anything or go anywhere. I can’t see friends. It’s a mental struggle.’’ Sofia Nunez, pictured right with fiance Jonno Tucker