Omicron outbreak editorial: Taking back control as Covid eases

rime Minister Jacinda Ardern during the post-Cabinet press conference with Covid-19 Response Minister Ayesha Verrall. Photo / Mark Mitchell.

EDITORIAL

Nobody has sounded happier about the end of just about all pandemic precautions than the Prime Minister when making the announcement at her post-cabinet press conference on Monday. "Finally, rather than feeling that Covid dictates what happens to us," she said, "we take back control."

She used that phrase several times, "we take back control". It sounded slightly odd because "control" is something governments have exercised to an unprecedented degree in response to Covid-19. But from her point of view, clearly, the decisions to impose these controls were "dictated" to governments by a new virus known only to be highly contagious and lethal.

The fact governments felt they had no choice but to close down much of their countries' economies and suspend their social lives does not mean the decisions were easy, especially for governments of liberal democracies.

Jacinda Ardern, so long so cautious, now sounds so relieved to be removing almost all mandates and restrictions that some will accuse her of jumping the gun. Covid-19 is still circulating and still mutating. The fact recent variants have been less deadly than the one that had Auckland in lockdown this time last year is no guarantee the virus will become steadily more manageable.

But now winter has passed and rates of infection, hospitalisation and death are declining, there is every reason to believe the worst is over. The Government clearly believes so and hearing the Prime Minister's palpable relief makes this a good time to acknowledge the pressure she and her senior ministers must have been feeling for the past two and half years.

It is not necessary to agree with every decision they made along the way to realise how agonising many of these decisions must have been. No responsible person would take the extreme measures advised by epidemiologists without losing a good deal of sleep about the possible consequences for people's jobs and livelihoods, children's schooling, and many industries that depend on an open border.

The pressure is inevitably greatest on a Prime Minister. As Sir John Key has explained, big calls often have to be made at the top. Some allow no time for wider discussion and advice but even when there is time for the Cabinet to make the decision, it is the Prime Minister who has to present, explain and justify it to the public. To do that convincingly, the PM has to agree with it.

The ultimate power of the position must be a lonely pressure but it probably also focuses the mind clearly and tests the person's instincts deeply. If the PM's instincts tell her she can now safely speak in terms that suggest this is the end of the pandemic, it is reason to celebrate.

"Certainty" was another word she used in announcing the end of "traffic lights" and masking mandates in all but health and aged care environments. It sounded like the certainty was hers more than ours.

She has reclaimed the right to govern normally and for that, we can all be grateful.