New government research about Covid-19 shows most New Zealanders feel like the country is heading in the right direction but are also worried to open the borders.
The majority of people surveyed thought Covid-19 hadn't interrupted the lives that greatly. Photo: Facebook
The study of more than 1800 people commissioned by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet looked at attitudes, behaviours and public sentiments towards the virus.
The research agency's study showed overall New Zealanders were pretty happy with how things were around Covid-19.
When asked about their feelings the top result was neutral on 44 percent, closely followed by joy on 28 percent and only 11 percent feeling sad.
Researcher Karin Glucina said Covid-19 was not the main thing they thought about, which showed people had partially become used to their new normal.
"I might talk to young people in an office and they go 'oh I just don't really think about it anymore,' so it's not apathy, but it's just not the top of mind thing in our lives."
And the majority of people still felt like they were making progress with their lives and that Covid-19 hadn't interrupted it.
Glucina said the downside of these feelings was when people were quite passive, it could be hard to motivate them and, in this case, keep them engaged with public health measures.
But the research also showed New Zealanders were realistic. They knew things weren't going back to what it was like in a pre-Covid-19 world and there would be some changes we needed to keep up.
Despite the overwhelming "passive" response to the virus, more than half, 53 percent, of the country were worried about opening up quarantine free travel beyond Australia and the Cook Islands.
As with earlier research Māori and Pasifika had higher levels of fear around Covid-19 and less compliance.
However Pasifika people were motivated to protect their friends and family and wanted to travel overseas to see them, which is a way they can be further targeted to improve their response to health measures.
Another group that showed a lack of compliance were men under 35.
The study revealed they were not as engaged with the impacts on the country and they were less likely to follow the rules around Covid-19.
They ranked lower than the total population in handwashing, and coughing or sneezing into your elbow, using a mask and not attending large gatherings in higher alert levels.
"Under 35 males reallocate to 'I do it when I think others expect me to'."
The research agency said this group usually ranked lower in these kind of studies and were harder to target and keep engaged.