The priest with four churches in the parish told CathNews that all the main services at prime times were full.

"I always knew people would come back", he said in an uplifted tone.

"I nearly had to erect a sign, 'No room at the Inn', but it's the wrong season for that," he said, grinning with delight.

A similar upbeat tone was reflected by parishes CathNews contacted throughout the country. In one, the 'crowd controller' at St Anne's Manurewa, Auckland, estimated the congregation numbered around 2,000, swamping available seating inside the church.

The feeling was catchy.

In Johnsonville, Jigs (16) assisted, as the priest sprinkled the bulging Easter Sunday congregation with water.

"The church couldn't cope with the number; people overflowed into the foyer, and we 'almost' ran out of holy water", Jigs told CathNews.

Gillian and Ewen said the Easter ceremonies lifted their spirits.

"People just kept on coming; there's life after all."

"People left their tombs; it was a resurrection experience happening before our eyes," Ewen said.

JL (18) breathed a sigh of relief as he described what he called ‘normality after two years.

"It was way more lively and great to see the community come out and celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ," he said.

"The community is bigger than our locked-down individual efforts."

Judy described the ceremonies as "Spring in Autumn."

Not one for TV Eucharist, she told CathNews that, for her, "Church is about being together, not watching others eat and drink."

"Eucharist is a community in action, not a spectator event," she said.

Judy says she likes to go to Mass and considers herself ‘a regular', but confessed she is not the most organised and, because of the booking system, she regularly missed out.

"Whoever thought that for two years, we'd have to book to go to Mass!"

She said that she probably prayed a bit more in the intervening times than she once did but did not consider that a bad thing.

"But personal prayer is not community worship. It's different."

"Young families.

"New life.

"Optimism," she said.

The palpable confidence of all these parishioners was catchy. It was real and while some, for example, missed kissing the cross on Good Friday and others regretted there was no singing, all wanted to focus on the positive. Their Easter joy was overlayed with being sensible.

"As well as the Resurrection, people also had an eye on the rear-view mirror; the tomb," Jane told CathNews.

"They showed their care and respect for each other by being masked and using hand sanitiser.

"It gave me more confidence to be there," she said.

Australia

Easter positivity also permeated Australia, where more than 8,000 people filed through the doors of St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne.

Melbourne's Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli described the peoples' response as "humbling after COVID-19 density limits, and live streaming had dominated the event in recent years."

The Age reports that Cathedral staff went a step further than the norm and introduced hand sanitiser before receiving Holy Communion.

Not all over

However, despite the optimism, New Zealand's Dr Dion O'Neale of Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa warns ‘it' is not all over, and the next Covid-19 wave could hit New Zealand as early as winter or spring.

He cautions that the shape and timing of the next wave hinge on big uncertainties - such as how fast our natural immunity will wane, and whether our own behaviour will boost the spread.

Identifying the importance of continuing to use of masks, O'Neale says that future waves should have lower peaks, but qualifies the comment by saying the lower peaks depend on peoples' behaviour.

He says a fourth vaccine for high-risk groups would be a good way to mitigate the health burden with future waves.

O'Neale says "Overseas data on reinfections suggests that it is dominated by infections in unvaccinated individuals - particularly in younger children who may be too young to be vaccinated and who have lower vaccination coverage in general."

He is also not ruling out another 'game-changing' variant.

On April 13, New Zealand's Covid Response Minister announced that at 11:59 pm the country would move from red to the orange traffic light setting.

Additional sources

• Newstalk ZB
• The Age
• RNZ

The Government announced on Wednesday a 200-person limit for those with a vaccine pass at a religious gathering such as Mass, says a statement from the bishop's conference.

"It is really welcome that these restrictions are being eased in the middle of Lent and with Easter just over three weeks away," the statement says.

Bishop Stephen Lowe says while the bishops supported vaccine passes and similar restrictions when they were introduced last November, their support was based on the pandemic emergency as it was at the time.

He warns that loosening the restrictions doesn't mean this is "life as normal. We know that the virus will continue to have an impact on the way we celebrate in our churches for a while yet," he says.

People gathering inside at a church setting will still need to remain cautious and we will need to avoid certain ways of celebrating rituals that might make it easier for infections to spread, says Lowe.

Managing your own safety

Responding to the restriction easing, Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker advises people to reconsider now Covid restrictions are beginning to ease.

"If you don't have underlying illnesses and you're not particularly elderly, you can still go out and enjoy life - just try and do it safely."

That means wearing the right kind of mask in the right setting. He recommends wearing a respirator mask like the N95.

Elderly or immuno-compromised people - even those who are vaccinated - have fewer choices, he says.

"The only thing you can do in that situation is to actually reduce your contacts quite significantly."

It is a point reinforced by the chair of the government's Strategic Covid-19 Public Health Advisory Group, Professor Sir David Skegg.

Skegg told the NZ Herald that for this and subsequent outbreaks, people are being asked to consider their own behaviour and appetite for risk.

In Australia, with Covid-19 cases soaring, Prime Minister, Scott Morrison is spending up large, tipping in almost A$2bn to clinch a deal with Moderna to produce 100 million mRNA jabs under a 10-year plan to pandemic-proof the nation.

With 62,000 new infections on Wednesday, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation met to finalise approval for a fourth jab ahead of winter.

Source:

• Catholic.org.nz
• NZ Herald
• The Australian
• Image: New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference