Border had been set to reopen to visitors and visa holders coming from Australia from 17 January

New Zealand has announced a suite of measures to strengthen its defence against the Omicron variant, including pushing back the start of its quarantine-free border reopening to the end of February.

The Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said the reopening delay will be disappointing for those who had made travel plans over summer, but added that waiting until the end of February would increase New Zealand’s overall protection and slow Omicron’s spread.

“Covid-19 keeps throwing new curve balls and we have to respond in a way that continues to protect lives and livelihoods without putting in place restrictions and lockdowns unless absolutely necessary,” Hipkins said.

Older people described how they coped with enforced isolation, with some finding the experience positive

A trove of nearly 800 letters recording the lockdown experiences of older New Zealanders has been collected in a University of Auckland research project called Have Our Say. Researchers appealed for written accounts of lockdown to understand how older people coped with enforced isolation, and to amplify elders’ voices. The letter writers were all over 70. Many described the importance of daily routines, their experiences during historical crises and how they stayed involved in their community. The letters will be held by the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Here are some excerpts from the collection:

Vaccinated people in New Zealand’s largest city can now go to the pub for the first time in over 100 days

In Auckland, nature was healing. The ungroomed lined up for their eyebrow appointments. Bars flung open their doors with the promise of free drinks. Locals posted photos of their flat whites and brunch menus. The city’s sky tower was lit up for the first day of the “traffic light” reopening. And, in perhaps the truest sign that the gridlock-plagued city was on its pathway to normalcy, four lanes of the southern motorway were bumper to bumper.

The traffic light system, announced by prime minister Jacinda Ardern in late November, ends lockdowns in favour of restrictions on the unvaccinated. The red, orange and green levels depend on vaccination rates and the level of strain on the health system, but even at red – the strictest level – businesses are fully open to the vaccinated, with some restrictions on gathering size.