New Zealanders yesterday mingled with friends and hit shopping malls for the first time in seven weeks as a national lockdown ended and businesses faced a “new normal” minimizing the constant threat of COVID-19.
A long-awaited haircut was the top priority for many Kiwis after almost two months in isolation, with lines of tangle-headed customers forming at barbers before dawn.
Retailers, restaurants, malls, cinemas, cafes, gyms and playgrounds were all allowed to reopen after the government relaxed COVID-19 restrictions.
Photo: AFP
The lockdown was among the tightest in the world and helped New Zealand become one of the most successful countries in containing the epidemic.
Yesterday’s changes, which put New Zealand at level 2 on its four-tier alert system, also allow Kiwis to break their quarantine “bubble,” and meet up with friends and wider family members.
“People are looking to get back to normal and being at level 2 will allow everybody to at least function to a degree,” retailer Mike Leigh said.
Streets in downtown Wellington were once again jammed with traffic, although the usual crush on the capital’s commuter trains was nonexistent.
Instead, red and green stickers were plastered on seats, indicating where passengers could sit while still maintaining social distancing.
The city’s main railway station smelled strongly of disinfectant as cleaners mopped and scrubbed between each influx of office workers.
Outside the station, Leigh stood at a makeshift stall selling brightly colored masks at NZ$15 (US$9) apiece. A carpenter by trade, he has not worked at his regular job since the lockdown began and spotted a gap in the market for masks, which were seldom worn in New Zealand before the pandemic.
“It’s been going pretty good. I’ve sold about eight or 10 of them this morning. My wife makes them,” he said, adding: “We’ll probably have to get a Web site.”
At the suburban Queensgate shopping mall, there was extra security to ensure crowds did not congregate too closely before retailers raised their shutters for the first time since late March.
Shops prominently displayed the maximum number of customers allowed inside alongside signs proclaiming “one in, one out.”
New Zealand, with a population of 5 million, has recorded only 21 COVID-19 deaths and kept new cases to single figures over the past month.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that she was hoping to catch up with her family face to face.
“I’m actually really looking forward to giving my sister a hug. I haven’t seen her for a couple of months because I haven’t been home,” she said earlier this week.
However, authorities have warned that there is no place for complacency and businesses of all types must use logbooks to record customers’ details in case there is an outbreak.
There are also stringent protocols surrounding the use of personal protective equipment and sanitizers that are likely to remain in the long-term.
“It’s not difficult, it’s more a matter of not forgetting that I have to do it after every client,” Wellington barber Dali Toma said, wiping down his chair.
Restaurateur Stephen Morris said that the way his Mediterranean eatery Avida operated had fundamentally changed.
Capacity has been reduced by more than a third to 92, with tables removed to allow more space between customers, and staff numbers and opening hours cut.
Morris was concerned that the upsurge in business as people celebrated the end of lockdown could be followed by a downturn as the economic effects of the pandemic sank in.
“We’re very much the CBD [central business district] crowd, but how many office blocks will be full?” he said. “If they’re working from home then all of a sudden we’re not getting full... we’re not out of the woods yet.”
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