Jo Raphael: Covid orange setting - why I'll still be masking up in public

To mask or not to mask - that's your choice, writes Jo Raphael, but I'm still wearing one. Photo / Getty Images

OPINION:

The announcement of the country's move into the orange traffic light setting right before Easter delivered by Chris Hipkins proved to be a bit of a mind-bender for me, and I'm sure for others who watched the press conference.

First of all, I'm not entirely sure that we're ready for the move - I fear it's too soon. There are still several thousand reported infections every day and people are still dying with Covid.

I feel we've done a great job of keeping Covid at bay as much as possible so we should keep going until the worst is over to protect our vulnerable people.

Under orange, these people feel they are still forced to stay in a pseudo-lockdown. How is that fair?

However, I'm neither a public health expert nor a medical expert.

But the Covid-19 Response Minister's choppy delivery confused me because he didn't appear to be sure about the new rules regarding mask usage.

That became evident once he was questioned by reporters at length.

To be clear: You are encouraged to wear a mask whenever you leave the house.

You must wear a mask when on domestic flights, public transport, school buses, taxis or ride share vehicles, inside retail businesses, public facilities such as museums or libraries (but not swimming pools), vet clinics, local government facilities, social service providers and NZ Police, NZ Post facilities and healthcare facilities.

But here's why I'm still going to be wearing a mask in orange whenever I'm around other people: I still don't want to get sick. Being sick sucks.

There's been a lot of pressure put on me and others who have so far managed to avoid Covid to "just get it over with".

No thanks.

More importantly, I spend a lot of time around a young cancer battler in and out of the hospital who doesn't need the added serious complication of a Covid infection.

I also want to keep you and your vulnerable loved ones safe.

Masks lower the risk of me spreading the illness if I get it. I don't want to be a part of the problem, and why not use all the tools at our disposal to help limit infection?

So while under orange we can look forward to the return of events and socialising, I believe caution still must be exercised and have a thought for those for who orange doesn't mean the freedom it does for many people.