Peter Dunne: Lifting Covid restrictions

The Prime Minister was right when he said lifting the remaining Covid19 restrictions earlier this was week was an anticlimax. Most New Zealanders had, like the rest of the world, been treating Covid19 as “just another illness” for a long time. They had largely been ignoring the self-isolation requirements that had remained in place here ten months longer than in Australia.

So, the removal of the last restrictions, and the accompanying predictable chorus of woe from the band of zealots that had so enjoyed ruling the media roost during the pandemic, was more a reminder of the worst of national times than a cause for celebration.

John MacDonald: The Covid rules that should have gone ages ago

I would say that, for most of this year, I’ve thought it nutbar that we have still had to isolate for seven days if we get Covid.

That’s all changed though. Because, as of midnight last night, there’s no more isolation and masks are out the window in most places too.

Although, healthcare facilities are still on the list of places where we’ll kind of be expected to wear one. I say “kind of” because that’s been my experience recently.

Kerre Woodham: Axing Covid requirements brought me no particular joy

So the announcement that all Covid-19 requirements have finally been removed by the Government brought me no particular joy.

For me, the beginning of the end was when the lockdown in Auckland was finally lifted after months.

Following increasingly absurd and farcical and unenforceable rules, in what seemed to be a Government bid to force the refuseniks to get vaccinated to reach an arbitrary target, set from memory, by the New Zealand Herald.