When we crossed the border, we realised that the world had moved on from Covid-19

When Sarah Catherall travelled to the US and Europe for a northern hemishere summer, the first thing she noticed was the lack of masks.

Since I left New Zealand four weeks ago, I’ve worn a face mask just a few times. The first was on my Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Los Angeles, when the air steward came around frequently to check our cabin was masked up.

As soon as we stepped off the plane at LAX terminal we got our first shock. Arriving from Covid-ravaged New Zealand, we stood in a customs arrival queue, jammed in with other arriving passengers who weren’t wearing masks.

We heard the odd cough and sneeze, which gave us the jitters so we pulled our masks on more tightly.

Many of the border staff weren’t masked.

We did a double take. It was like the world we knew before Covid.

For the next four weeks, as we travelled through Europe, it was as though the virus we had lived with and feared for two-plus years had been completely wiped out.

Despite a rise in Covid cases in the UK again, many people seemed to be acting as though it had disappeared.

Europeans have also become desensitised to Covid, approaching it like a cold or mild flu, unless they’re elderly or immunocompromised – the reality is that Covid has taken 2.2 million European lives so far.

Before heading to Europe we spent two days in LA, where we saw the occasional sign for free Covid testing, and entry to the Getty Museum was on a pre-purchased ticket to limit visitor numbers.

But many of the Covid restrictions had gone. We walked into shopping malls and pharmacies without masks – they’re no longer required in any setting.

When we flew to Zurich with Swiss Air, we got another shock. The air crew weren’t wearing masks, nor many of the passengers.

I asked a steward why the crew don’t wear masks. He shrugged his shoulders and told me: ‘‘Masks are voluntary, and I’ve had Covid.’’

Swiss Air is Switzerland’s national carrier. Switzerland had a seven-day average of about 6500 new Covid cases in early July, when we were there, and 1000 people in hospital for an 8.5 million population.

Back in April, the Swiss Government scrapped compulsory mask wearing and vaccine requirements. Even Swiss healthcare workers no longer have to wear masks in hospitals or health clinics.

This is a sweeping change. My Switzerland-based sister had spent two years wearing a mask in her Swiss classroom from mid-2020, teaching pupils at a time when New Zealanders weren’t required to wear them.

Vaccine passes were also compulsory in some Swiss settings, such as to get into a public swimming pool, and health workers all had to be double vaccinated.

But those rules have been dropped and the virus no longer startles the Swiss in the way it did even six months ago.

On our trip, I was on a train from Zurich to Lausanne when a 20-something passenger who looked seriously ill had a coughing fit.

On the packed regional train, we were the only people wearing masks. And the passenger didn’t seem to give a toss that she was coughing – a sound equivalent to a gun cracking in New Zealand – nor did anyone around her, except for us.

As we travelled through Switzerland, there was not a dot of news in the media about Covid – I had to Google to find Covid stats on their local health ministry website.

Similarly, on a Saturday morning reading The Times in London, there was not a mention of Covid on any of its 88 pages.

If you happen to catch one of the Omicron variants in Switzerland or France, you’re supposed to isolate for five days. But your household doesn’t have to stay home too.

The UK has removed all Covid restrictions – a controversial move. It advises people to isolate for five days, but doesn’t force them.

From August 1, France – one of the strictest about Covid in Europe – dropped all entry rules for arriving passengers, who no longer either have to have a negative Covid test or a vaccine pass.

Meanwhile, as we travelled, I had daily notifications on my phone from New Zealand news media about daily Covid cases, deaths and hospital admissions.

I felt anxious about Covid again, especially when my daughter’s Otago University friends were being struck with Covid for a second time.

In Europe, there were no alarming reports about full hospitals, overrun health workers and surgery being delayed to cope with Covid and flu inpatients. Instead, everyone cares about Sunak versus Truss in the UK race to be prime minister, Ukraine and Russia, rising energy prices and the threat of no fuel for winter.

We arrived in Spain, where once again, no-one cared too much about Omicron’s new variants. We booked bikes to explore Barcelona and the woman signing them out told us that anyone in Spain can now go to work or do what they like if they test positive – ideally, they’ll wear a mask, but this is not mandatory.

But she would never forget their months of confinement during the 2020 Delta wave, when they weren’t allowed to leave the house except to buy food or medicine. ‘‘We weren’t allowed to go for a walk, or we’d be fined by the police,’’ she told us.

This is the European experience of the pandemic which many now want to move on from – when their hospitals and morgues were overrun. That time felt like Armageddon, the horror images New Zealanders saw on our news feeds in 2020 that we were so relieved to avoid by closing our borders.

‘‘Oh you’re the place that kept out Covid,’’ our London taxi driver commented. That’s not quite right, I told him. But yes, New Zealand was lucky to suppress Delta – after being in Europe, it hits home how lucky we are about that.

Shaun swung the black cab around a corner and told us he had been triple-jabbed and had Covid three times. He said all this in the same tone as he told us we should take a photograph of Waterloo Bridge as we crossed it.

The UK has had the highest death toll in Europe in absolute terms, according to Our World in Data – at 2753 deaths per million people. New Zealand, by contrast, has had about 332 Covid-related deaths per million.

Seven in 10 people in the UK have had Covid, according to a recent report, which suspects that is an underestimate – but the virus is now so passe´ that it is barely worth mentioning unless you’re a politician or a Commonwealth Games athlete.

So far, I’ve avoided Covid on my trip but the prospect of getting it no longer worries me as it did before I left. I’m reminded of comments from a friend back home, who said: ‘‘The Government has done a good job at conveniently frightening the living daylights out of all of us about Covid.’’

I no longer jump when someone coughs around me. Back home, I’ll wear a mask again to stop the virus spreading, although I’m annoyed our Government failed to plan for a livingwith-Covid world.

A final thought as we prepare to come home: if we can get through this New Zealand horror winter – and if the Government can urgently fix our strained health service – wouldn’t it be nice to think we could live like the Europeans this coming summer?

On the packed regional train, we were the only people wearing masks. And the passenger didn’t seem to give a toss that she was coughing...