Southland businesses adjust to life in orange

Sunday, 5 December 2021

With a few days having passed since the introduction of the new Covid-19 Protection Framework, Southlanders are coping.

The country moved to the Covid-19 traffic light system on Friday, with the South Island in orange. It means close contact businesses, including cafés, bars, restaurants and gyms, require customers to show proof of vaccine passes when entering the premises.

Paddington Arms owner and Hospitality New Zealand Southland president Graham Hawkes said apart from getting the odd phone call from someone asking if they would be needed to be vaccinated for entry, the transition had been okay.

It had been slower since Friday, as the restaurant had been quite busy until the deadline date with unvaccinated people making the most of the time they had left, he said.

**READ MORE:

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**

“On the positive side, our guests have been very responsible, and when they arrive in they're all ready to show us their pass.”

However, Toasted and Auction House owner Judy McNeilly said a lot of people had not been organised when coming in.

“A lot of people just showed their vaccine cards but didn’t understand that you actually need the passport,” she said.

She also had to turn away whole groups as some were vaccinated while others not.

Some unvaccinated people asked if they could be served at the outside tables but McNeilly said she had to refuse.

“I think there’s a lot of confusion about the passport.

“And I actually thought it would be the older people, the over 70s, that would be terrible, but they’ve been really organised and really onto it. It’s been more the middle-aged people that have been not on to it,” she said.

A lot of vaccinated people kept saying they had the pass but did not know how to find it, McNeilly said.

She did not think the vaccine verifier app did much apart from giving the tick to say the barcode was valid.

She knew most of her customers by name, so she was able to tell if the passes were valid or not.

Even though it was not a requirement, McNeilly had asked her staff to verify the passes with photo ID if they were unsure if the vaccine pass was valid.

Vaccination certificates were required to enter most Catholic Church services in Invercargill on the weekend.

Father Tony Harrison said the two not needing them were the 7.30am service at the Basilica, and Bluff's Saturday mass at 6pm.

The certificate would be needed to gain entry into the First Presbyterian Church service on Sunday.

Its minister, Nyalle Paris, said the church was helping parishioners to download certificates.

The XO Church in Invercargill has increased its number of Sunday services from three to four to accommodate its members and comply with the Government's Covid-19 traffic light regulations.

The church's senior pastor Graeme Pope said people attending on Sunday would not be asked about their Covid-19 vaccination status.

With the South Island starting the traffic light system under orange, the XO Church is allowed to hold services for up to 50 people who don't have to divulge their vaccination status.

They have to social distance and contact tracing must be done. Most Sundays between 250 and 300 people, including children, attended XO services.

However, the children's worship area was in a separate area, away from the adults.

People planning to attend services had to make bookings, Pope said.

'We won't ask people if they are vaccinated or not, we don't want to discriminate against people,' Pope said.

'I'm fully supportive of getting vaccinated, but I don't think it is good to discriminate against people for whatever reason.' Pope is double vaccinated.

Between 80 and 100 people usually attended the Sunday service.

A police spokesperson said the focus for the weekend had been to help people understand and make adjustments to the new framework.

“Our staff on duty this weekend have observed that the vast majority of New Zealanders have done their best to familiarise themselves with the new traffic light settings and are enjoying the start of summer while still complying with requirements.”

Data on the number of breach incidents regarding the new traffic light system was not yet available, but districts had not reported any significant issues, the spokesperson said.