Luke Kirkness: Why today is make or break for the Government

OPINION:

Today could be a make-or-break day for the Government.

It's set to announce when the country's borders will reopen and when returning vaccinated Kiwis can isolate at home rather than in managed isolation. The expected date is February 27.

Yesterday it was revealed that people could get their vaccine booster shot three months after receiving their second dose instead of four months. It means a million more Kiwis will be able to get their booster this Friday.

Reopening the borders is likely to be one of the Government's toughest decisions of the pandemic.

Throughout the pandemic, most people would agree the Government made the right decisions to keep New Zealand safe.

They watched what happened overseas and spoke to experts and were right not to follow the same path as others.

However, with public support waning, this week the Government will have been debating how to get New Zealand back on track with the rest of the world.

There are suggestions that the reopening dates may not be far off given the booster announcement, which would ensure more people are protected by the time that happens.

That's got to be welcome news for the business sector, which is a skeleton of its former self - but many people may still be taking a wait-and-see approach.

A move out of the red traffic light setting will be key, enabling businesses to open up more.

Bay of Plenty business owners have said red will stop people from heading out and about and that the traffic light setting will "haemorrhage" the local economy.

The high transmissibility of Omicron is thought to be behind a "good chunk" of a drop in the region's economic confidence too.

As reported on Monday, Westpac's Regional Economic Confidence showed confidence in the region's economic prospects took a hit in the December quarter, sliding eight percentage points to –7.

Industries that depend on people being on-site such as construction, manufacturing and healthcare may struggle under pressure as people will be required to isolate themselves due to infection or contact with cases.

However, the region remains on a sound economic footing and Westpac expected confidence to rebound over the remainder of 2022.

We still have Omicron to deal with and it's just starting to make a foothold in the community.

There were 91 new community cases on Monday, 126 on Tuesday, and 142 yesterday throughout the country.

In the Bay of Plenty and Lakes District Health Boards, the daily numbers haven't increased by more than 10 in either location this week but the overall case numbers were 52 and 93 respectively, as of midnight on Monday.

This all indicates more tough times on the horizon - but with any luck, the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel will be brighter by today's end.