Editorial: We did it together

It’s easy to forget how quickly our lives changed. On this day last year we were scrambling to make lastminute arrangements before the entire country went into lockdown at 11.59pm.

Barring essential activities and exercise we were to be confined to our homes.

It was a once-in-a-multigeneration collective effort to combat a pandemic that had only been in the public consciousness for a few weeks.

It was only a week after the first domestic Covid-19 restrictions were announced; the closing of the border and a limiting of gatherings, and the alert level system we are now so familiar with was only four days old.

We had no real idea how long it would last and what the cost would be.

Some businesses didn’t survive. Some jobs were lost. People missed major life events. Twenty-six people died.

It was an incredibly unnerving time and we shouldn’t underestimate the toll it has and continues to take.

Ongoing alert level changes and the need for constant vigilance create lingering anxiety.

We shouldn’t underestimate the

toll it has and continues to take.

But through that sacrifice we were able to resume some sort of normality by May and we had navigated the pandemic better than was reasonably feared and certainly better of much of the world.

The fact that Whanganui Walls and Artists Open Studios - two of the first dominoes to topple in the chaos leading up to last year’s lockdown - were held successfully over the weekend is a timely symbol of what we’ve achieved in 12 months.

It will be years before a day passes without a mention or thought of Covid-19.

There’s the vaccination programme, the safe reopening of our borders and the continued economic recovery.

But as a whole the community as a whole has come through the hard part with resilience, innovation and a strong sense of community.

A year ago today this newspaper carried the front-page headline: ‘Together, we can do this’.

Today, as we reflect on the anniversary of lockdown, we’re proud to report we did.

It’s a remarkable time in our lives and there’s still more work to come.

We know we can do that too.