As the COVID-19 Delta situation unfolds, our sister agency, Perceptive is regularly reaching out to Kiwis, including business owners, to understand their current headspace.
Kiwi attitudes are divided by the new Covid-19 protection plan.
There has been a polarised response to the traffic light system with negative responses slightly exceeding positive responses. Most New Zealanders believe the protection plan needs to be reassessed over time or changed to ensure fairness. The new protection framework was seen to benefit the economy and local businesses at the expense of the healthcare system and mental health. Individual responsibilities are clear at least, despite confusion about the system itself.
Concern has spiked over the past few weeks.
Currently, most New Zealanders feel a strong level of concern toward the Covid-19 situation in New Zealand, which has increased significantly since September. New Zealanders are getting more concerned about the impact Covid-19 is going to put on our healthcare system and the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders, including mental health. As a result, many New Zealanders are still seeing the need for restrictions.
An increasing proportion of people are finding the amount of information from government and the media to be overwhelming.
In the latest survey, New Zealanders’ emotions remain fairly unchanged since the last wave of tracking. As we take into consideration the new protection framework, time will tell how Kiwis will respond to the framework and how emotions will change as a result.
The protection framework has resulted in a slight boost in Government confidence.
The implementation of the protection framework is helping to improve the public’s decreased confidence in the New Zealand Government with those indicating ‘Yes, they are doing as much as they can’rising, however, over half of New Zealanders (53%) still believe the New Zealand Government is not doing enough/could be doing more.
Kiwis expect a long wait to reach green
The majority of people believe the red light change will occur after the seasonal period and orange in January at the earliest. Most predict we’ll return close to our new ‘normal’ (green level) after summer, with some believing it won’t happen until May or later.
Vaccine update
The prospect of New Zealanders achieving the double dose vaccination is looking positive with 90% of single dose vaccinated respondents indicating they plan to get the second jab and almost all aware they only have to wait three weeks until their second jab. The number of vaccinated children aged 12-17 years is low but growing, however, there has been little change in the minority not planning on vaccinating their children.
Business decision makers are concerned about enforcing vaccine requirements.
Business owners and decision makers are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the management of vaccination statuses and processes and are concerned that it is their responsibility to ensure all their staff are vaccinated and the repercussions if they choose not to be. They are also apprehensive about having to monitor the vaccine certificates of customers, having limitations placed on their business if they choose not to implement the requirement of vaccine certificates and refusing service to the unvaccinated.
Fieldwork was deployed on Friday afternoon following the announcement of the government’s new protection framework and traffic light system.
Learn more about Covid-19 Insights here.
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