How to cope creatively with Covid

As the country moves into the warmer months, we need to be creative about how we get on with life amid the pandemic — for both individual safety and to aid New Zealand’s economic recovery.

Fine, hot weather means people will naturally spend more time outside — and that’s the best place to be if you are able to still do things you enjoy while Covid-19 is potentially around.

Although the aim with current restrictions is to get back to coronavirus elimination, further community cases are likely over the next year. This is a hard virus to keep down and thought needs to go into how to safely manage the situation.

European countries such as France, Britain, and Spain are going through serious upturns in cases. Israel has imposed a new lockdown. Top American infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci said he expects the US will not return to “normality” until late 2021.

The World Health Organisation said a record increase for a single day of 307,900 had been set on Monday.

The only good news is that the overseas resurgence is proving to be less deadly than the first outbreak with hospital admissions and fatalities much lower. The global case fatality rate is now 3.2 per cent overall compared to 7.2 per cent at the end of April.

Experts are assessing the reasons for this and one factor appears to be that younger people are more commonly being infected now compared to senior citizens earlier on. The virus is still unpredictable, dangerous for people with health vulnerabilities, and plenty of people who survive have symptoms for weeks and months afterwards.

One key message for New Zealanders to absorb is that when we leave our homes, the outdoors are far less risky for coronavirus infection than the indoors.

When combined with maskwearing, social distancing and hand hygiene; activities and events outdoors can take place safely.

Outdoors, there’s air around. Any virus particles can disperse. Indoors, they are trapped and circulate, unless there is adequate ventilation such as open windows and doors.

For eating out, it is best to plan to do so at places with either outdoor or well-ventilated seating.

Overseas, cities in the Northern Hemisphere have allowed outdoor dining spaces to sprawl across footpaths and on to streets as a lifeline for cafes and restaurants, reducing the area for traffic.

In Australia, Victoria and New South Wales have taken note.

Victoria plans to create “pop-up” eateries to aid the hospitality industry. Premier Daniel Andrews, said Melbourne’s footpaths, car parks and public parks would become sites for outdoor seating.

“I think these changes will be so popular that they ought to be a feature of every summer … there will be a significant return on that investment, not just in the months ahead but in the years ahead,” Andrews said.

NSW aims to boost Sydney’s inner-city nightlife with moves that include extending opening hours, lifting some restrictions on live shows and making late-night transport more available.

The Labor opposition’s night-time economy spokesman John Graham wants changes that would make it easier to bring in outdoor dining and performances, and later trading hours, immediately.

Sydney’s business groups are calling for councils to close streets to traffic and boost rooftop venues for outdoor dining.

Like the hospitality industry, the arts and entertainment sectors have suffered everywhere.

The outdoors are far less risky for coronavirus infection than the indoors.

This weekend Art Paris in France will be the first big international art fair to physically go ahead since the pandemic began — a risk even with restrictions and in the roomy Grand Palais.

In Greece, plays have been staged amid ancient ruins. Music concerts have been performed from a barge at a Canadian lake. In northern France, a floating piano performance took place against a backdrop of Ricquebourg Castle and grazing cows as a singer rowed along.

Auckland and other parts of the country have parks and other outdoor settings that can be venues in good weather for music, theatre and art displays, with attendees wearing masks and socially distanced.

The virus will likely lead to permanent changes in both innercity areas and suburbs.

Longer-term, as people get used to doing more work from home, at least some commercial office buildings will be converted into apartments. People living in them will be able to keep businesses, which now rely on office workers, to keep going.

Everyday use of rooftops for cafes and bars, or for home gardens for residents, or deliveries by drones, could become more common in postpandemic life.

In the meantime, we have to adjust — with some leadership, flexibility and a positive attitude.