Covid 19 coronavirus: Audrey Young - The beginning of the end for Fortress New Zealand

Illustration / Guy Body

OPINION:

This week marks a turning point in the war against Covid.

A short, sharp lockdown for Auckland over three days and today's official start of the vaccine roll-out signals the beginning of the end of Fortress New Zealand.

How fast we emerge from it will depend on whether the Government can walk and chew gum at the same time.

It has to be able to roll out the vaccine and simultaneously plan for the freedoms that a vaccine should bring, collectively as a country and to the individuals who have had the jab.

It will not be good enough to wait until the country has been largely vaccinated before turning its attention to what happens next.

Rolling out a nationwide vaccine is one heck of a logistical exercise that will tax health officials to the maximum.

The optimism expressed in their ability to deliver is perhaps more of a hope than an incontrovertible belief.

But health officials appeared to cope well this week when faced with the dual challenge of overseeing preparations for the vaccine programme and managing the health response to a new community cases.

Cartoonist Rod Emmerson's take on the Pfizer vaccine arriving just after Valentine's Day.

The February Auckland lockdown, which was announced on Valentine's Day, was reassuring in some respects.

I confess to having been a little surprised at how fast the Government put Auckland into lockdown and then surprised at how fast it lifted it, after 72 hours. Pleasantly surprised. Both decisions were rational and justified.

It means that the system is becoming more nimble and responsive.

The system has not been fast enough to have yet introduced rapid saliva testing for border workers as another line of defence.

But that looks inevitable. And rapid testing and a nationwide vaccinations provide protections that should help us live and travel with Covid, sooner rather than later.

It is imperative that there be some clarity and common goal about what a vaccine will mean for travel between Australia and New Zealand.

Herald columnist Dick Brass receiving his Covid-19 vaccine in the United States. Photo / Supplied

That doesn't mean New Zealand opens up instantly to the world.

But the agreement of a mutually acceptable proof of vaccine between New Zealand and Australia should not be difficult for two countries that already have extensive provisions for mutual recognition.

That is why it is important that Jacinda Ardern retains a professional relationship with Scott Morrison, despite her disgust at Australia's decision to wash its hands of its homegrown Isis member who may be deported from Turkey to New Zealand by accident of birth.

The two countries could move on a vaccine passport at a faster pace than IATA or the World Health Organisation which is working on an internationally acceptable vaccine standard.

Morrison and Opposition leader Anthony Albanese will be among the first to be vaccinated in Australia – on the basis of establishing confidence in the vaccine, not queue jumping.

Under normal circumstances, Morrison would be due to visit New Zealand about now in the annual bilateral talks that take turn-about in New Zealand and Australia.

Having had the jab, is there really any good reason why Morrison should not be able to visit New Zealand?

Remember that the Ministry of Health has not reported a single case this year of Covid-19 having come from someone in Australia.

It is not yet clear that a vaccine will prevent transmissibility of Covid-19 but there are signs it is reduced.

A study in Israel, which has been one of the first to vaccinate large numbers, suggests that people who were infected after their first dose of the vaccine had a much lower viral load than unvaccinated people.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins during a press conference at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The recent examples of limited lockdowns in Sydney, Western Australia, Victoria and Auckland suggest a common approach to elimination.

It is curious that Australian health authorities did not have enough confidence in New Zealand to lift the 14-day quarantine requirement on arrivals from NZ that it imposed at the start of the week.

Such blanket suspensions have added to Jacinda Ardern's reticence over free transtasman travel because of concerns over Kiwis potentially stranded in Australia.

The vaccination plan in both countries should reduce if not eliminate the need for such suspensions.

A person who has had a vaccine, takes a rapid saliva test at the start and end of the journey, and comes from a country that shares an effective elimination record must be a low risk.

That should even be safe enough for Ardern to go Australia without quarantine on her return.