Caroline Norton said she was looking forward to having bands back at her restaurant, Caroline's Boatshed. Photo / Lewis Gardner
Caroline Norton said she was looking forward to having bands back at her restaurant, Caroline's Boatshed. Photo / Lewis Gardner
The Government's decision to pull back Covid-19 restrictions overnight has been met with an outpouring of elation from event organisers and hospitality operators in Whanganui.
The country moved to the less restrictive orange traffic light pandemic response setting on Wednesday night, ditching indoor limits and reducing mask-wearing requirements.
"Woo hoo,"was the immediate reaction of Wanganui Boxing Association chairman Eddie Tofa, who is set to lead the city in its hosting of the New Zealand Amateur Boxing Championships next Tuesday.
"It's good timing. Not just for us, I think the country's been waiting for this."
There was a big holiday coming up in the form of Easter and Tofa said New Zealanders wanted a little bit more freedom.
The man in charge of next week's NZ Amateur Boxing Championships, Eddie Tofa, was ecstatic with the decision to scrap indoor crowd limits. Photo / Bevan Conley
Case numbers seemed to be coming down so the decision made sense, Tofa said.
He said he had been frustrated with the limits to crowd numbers and now looked forward to boxers and more of their supporters coming to Whanganui next week.
"[I've] just come off the phone from some of the boxing people from Auckland and Canterbury - they were happy."
Whanganui District Council's venues and events manager Dana Burnett said there would be a lot of excitement from Royal Whanganui Opera House staff, as well as promoters and performers, for bigger audiences to return.
She said the next big event at the Opera House would be Albi & the Wolves on Friday, May 13.
"We're hoping for a crowd for that to celebrate our first performance, musical-wise, after an extended period of not having much."
When visiting a cafe, bar or any other hospitality venue, patrons will no longer have to wear a mask when going to and leaving the premises, when using the bathroom or when paying.
People will also no longer be required to be seated to be served - a rule that meant nightclubs could not open for dancing.
The Royal Whanganui Opera House will host its first big music event for a while on May 13 with Albi & the Wolves performing. Photo / Bevan Conley
Caroline's Boatshed owner Caroline Norton said the lessening of Covid-19 restrictions was a welcome relief, especially for her staff.
They had "stayed positive all the while, to do the very best we can for our patrons", she said.
"We are all very excited to be set free again to get on with the job as normal after all this time."
She said she was looking forward to hosting big events and having live bands again.
"I'm just so happy."
Catholic Parish of Whanganui priest Father Vaughan Leslie said with Friday's Easter service likely to bring 400 people, the scrapping of indoor limits was timely.
The parish would still ask people to wear a mask, but they would also now be able to provide hospitality after services, Leslie said.
"We think mask use is prudent."
There had been even bigger news for a lot of unvaccinated parishioners at the start of the month, Leslie said.
"The removal of the vaccine pass was significant for a lot of people in our community who we hadn't seen for several months."
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins announced the decision at Wednesday's 1pm press conference, saying the "overall picture is a very positive one".
Orange meant no indoor or outdoor capacity limits and seated rules removed, Hipkins said. The seven-day isolation requirement for positive cases remained.
Limits for indoor gatherings will be no more under the orange traffic light setting, and face masks will not be required at as many places - including at schools.
At the beginning of April the Government chose to keep the country at the red setting due to significant pressure on the health system and cases rising in parts of the country other than Auckland.
Since then the rate of those in hospital and of community cases has dropped.
Under red, people visiting indoor hospitality venues, events and gatherings were limited to 200 at a time.
Workers at public-facing indoor hospitality venues would still need to wear masks.
