Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand

The COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand has had far-reaching consequences on the country that went beyond the spread of the disease itself and efforts to eliminate it, including education, faith communities, Māori, mass gatherings, sports, recreation, and travel.

[42] On 25 February, Education Minister Hipkins clarified that unvaccinated children and teenagers would be allowed to participate in school sports and extracurricular activities under phase 3 of the country's Omicron response plan.

[48] On 25 July 2022, the leaders of ten regional principals' associations released a joint letter calling on the Government to reveal how it would help high school students pass their National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) exams.

[53] On 10 March, 11 health researchers including Amanda Kvalsvig and Michael Baker of the University of Otago penned an editorial in the New Zealand Medical Journal warning that the lack of COVID-19 protections in schools could cause another COVID-19 outbreak.

[73] On 11 November, the New Zealand Police confirmed that they were investigating an anonymous post on the controversial social media platform 8Chan by an individual claiming that they were seeking to deliberately spread COVID-19 among students taking their final year exams at the University of Auckland.

[78] By 25 August, several locations at the University of Auckland including lecture theatres, the Whitaker and Waipuru residential halls, and a Munchy Mart convenience store were identified as areas of interest in the Delta community outbreak.

[79] On 29 September, the University of Otago confirmed that it was considering implementing voluntary redundancies due to declining international enrolments, rising salary costs, an ongoing significant capital expenditure programme, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

[80][81] On 29 January, the Otago University Students' Association cancelled all large events for the Orientation Week scheduled for February 2022 due to "red light setting" restrictions limiting public gatherings to 100 people with vaccine passes.

[90] In late March 2020, there were reports that members of the Muslim community in New Zealand were having trouble accessing halal food due to the closure of butcheries, which were not deemed an "essential service" under Alert Level 4.

Following the death of a congregant on 6 October, local Samoan Assemblies of God denominational leaders including First lady Rebekah Toleafoa and church spokesperson Jerome Mika called for members to vaccinate.

[109] In early October 2021, The Spinoff reported that several faith communities and leaders including the Hindu temple Sri Venkateswara in Wainuiomata, Temple Sinai synagogue in Wellington, the Wellington Anglican Diocese, the evangelical Christian Rice youth movement, Muslim chaplain Tahir Nawaz, and the Auckland Buddhist Centre had adopted online communications technologies including Zoom, YouTube, and WhatsApp since lockdown restrictions had made it hard for many faith communities to hold physical gatherings and meetings.

[115] In late October 2021, Radio New Zealand reported that the Delta outbreak in Auckland and Waikato had worsened the country's housing crisis, leading the number of children living in motels to rise from 280 to 4,512 over the past three months.

[121] That same day, The New Zealand Herald reported that a man had admitted spreading a rumour on Reddit that a recent outbreak of community transmissions in Auckland in mid-August had been caused by a family member supposedly entering a managed isolation facility.

[128] In early April, Health Minister David Clark was criticised for flouting official guidelines against non-essential travel after he drove to a Dunedin park two kilometres away from his home to ride a mountain bike trail.

[149] By 31 August, Police had arrested 19 people across the country (two in the Northland Region, four in Auckland, three in Waikato, six in Bay of Plenty, two in Whanganui, one in Christchurch, and one in Taupō) for staging anti-lockdown protests in breach of Alert Level 4 restrictions.

[150] On 12 September, an Auckland couple named William Willis and Hannah Rawnsley flouted Alert Level 4 lockdown restrictions by using essential worker exemptions to drive to Hamilton Airport and then fly to their holiday home in Wānaka in the South Island.

This included a requirement for essential workers to provide a letter from the Ministry for Primary Industries proving that their travel complied with lockdown rules, which were eased when Alert Level 4 came to an end on 28 April.

[189] New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) Chief Air Marshal Kevin Short ordered military personnel not to attend the 2022 public ANZAC Day commemorations to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.

[192][193][194][195][196] Microbiologist and health adviser Dr. Siouxsie Wiles, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, and ACT Party leader David Seymour have criticised march participants for flouting Level 2 lockdown restrictions.

[201] Opposition Leader Todd Muller has criticised the Government for sending mixed messages about COVID-19 alert levels, alleging that they caused the public to become complacent about social distancing, citing the BLM rallies as an example.

[220] On 3 June 2020, Radio New Zealand reported that half of the Government's $30 million emergency welfare fund had been spent over a month, with many of the recipients including stranded migrant workers and foreigners who were unable to return to their countries due to the disruption of international travel.

[229] On 24 December, the Associate Immigration Minister Phil Twyford granted the father (identified as Jeffrey Santos) a character waiver and extended the family's visas, allowing them to stay for another year in New Zealand.

Faafoi estimated that 165,000 migrants including health, aged care, primary industry, teachers, construction, and manufacturing workers would be eligible for the 2021 resident visa programme, which will be rolled out in two phases in December 2021 and March 2022.

The paper found that far right online communities in New Zealand and abroad were using various social media platforms including Telegram to spread disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and lockdown policies through the use of memes, emotional testimonies, and Māori motifs and symbols.

[264] On 15 February 2021, the Halberg Awards celebrating New Zealand sports champions from the past decade was postponed due to Auckland shifting to Alert Level 3 as a result of three community transmissions detected in Papatoetoe the previous day.

[274] On 6 October 2021, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins acknowledged that the Government had granted Sonny Fatupaito, the leader of the Mongrel Mob's Waikato chapter, an essential worker exemption to travel in and out of Auckland the previous weekend.

[287][288] On 10 April, the Uruguayan government announced that it would be repatriating 16 New Zealanders and 96 Australians who had been stranded aboard the Antarctic cruise ship Greg Mortimer in the La Plata river near Montevideo since 27 March.

[307] On 9 May 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed in response to an Official Information Act request that the Government had spent NZ$6 million to repatriate New Zealanders who had been stranded overseas at various locations including Wuhan, India and Peru since the start of the pandemic.

[310] On 23 July, Prime Minister Ardern suspended the transtasman travel bubble with Australia from 11:59 pm that night for the next eight weeks due to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in several Australian cities and states.

[327] On 10 July, the Government announced that overseas-based victims of the Christchurch mosque shootings would be granted special border passes and financial help in order to travel to New Zealand for the duration of the gunman's sentencing, which begins on 24 August.