Editorial: At least one long weekend of celebration and hope in Auckland

Aucklanders celebrate newfound freedoms under the new traffic light system after 107 days of lockdown. Photo / Alex Burton

Editorial

In Auckland at the weekend the glass was looking half full as the city finally progressed to a different stage of life under the pandemic.

New Zealand spinner Ajaz Patel's history-making feat, in taking a perfect 10 wickets against India, seemed like the icing on the cake of a weekend of freedom for the country.

For Auckland in particular, after weeks in lockdown, people visited restaurants and bars as though New Years had come early.

It has been three days of feel-good relief for Aucklanders, who are now able to sit in while dining out and are rediscovering old pleasures and habits after the hard slog of lockdown.

Patel became only the third player in test cricket to achieve his milestone, ending with figures of 10 for 119 runs in the second match in Mumbai. The left-armer equals the efforts of England off-spinner Jim Laker (1956) and India leggie Anil Kumble (1999) in bagging all the wickets in an innings.

The 33-year-old, who was born in Mumbai, is not the only Kiwi flying high internationally at the moment. A couple of the country's film legends are as well.

Peter Jackson's Beatles documentary Get Back is wowing critics and audiences on Disney Plus around the world. Jane Campion on Saturday picked up a New York film critics award for Power of the Dog and is a favourite for the best director Oscar race.

Now audiences in Auckland can get to see it on the big screen (as well as on Netflix) with cinemas finally opening again along with other public venues.

Under the traffic lights framework, bars, restaurants, cafes and gyms were back in business, with people having vaccine passes scanned.

It coincided with new Covid-19 case numbers falling below 100 on Friday and Saturday.

And overall, the percentage of New Zealand's eligible population fully vaccinated so far climbed over 87. In the Auckland region, 90 per cent of those eligible are fully vaccinated.

Importantly, vaccination rates for Maori in the city have made progress. Now about 90 per cent of eligible Maori and Pacific people in Auckland have had at least one dose.

Auckland has been more resilient to Delta throughout the outbreak than had been feared after the examples of New South Wales and Victoria.

In one major disappointment, an protest against vaccine mandates involving a couple of thousand people managed to shut down the centre of Newmarket, on an important trading day for retailers in the lead-up to Christmas. It was the sixth protest started in the Auckland Domain in the past two months. Another rally was held in New Plymouth.

As the vaccination figures show, these people are very much in the minority.

But there are rumblings of trouble on the horizon.

Health experts worry that the increased opportunities for socialising and mixing people are now enjoying could lead to a spike in Covid cases. That will increase once the Auckland border is relaxed.

We still have to wait to see what the new Omicron variant has in store, although it is already nearby, having gained a foothold in Australia.

The glass could become half empty very quickly. For one weekend people made the most of the change to recharge their batteries, celebrate and feel more hopeful.