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Many people will be heading back to their workplaces today, returning for the first time after their summer holidays.
For some, it was a break marked with a Covid-19 infection or bad weather. In the week leading up to Christmas Day, 32,000 people tested positive for Covid-19.
One of those was Ōtautahi/Christchurch librarian Laura Caygill, whose holiday plans were scuppered by the virus when she tested positive on Christmas Eve.
"It was pretty awful timing and I actually had a family friend's wedding that day, so I wasn't able to go to the wedding and had to have Christmas dinner by delivery from my family which was really lovely.
"I was very well looked after but it wasn't the way I wanted to be spending my Christmas holiday."
Laura Caygill tested positive for Covid-19 on Christmas Eve. Photo: Supplied
She said the virus hit her hard, and since then she feels like she has been recovering rather than relaxing.
"I still definitely don't feel 100 percent. I had a pretty big year last year so was pretty exhausted when it came to the week before Christmas but I now feel like I've got a bit of a double whammy of general life, summer tiredness plus Covid exhaustion on top of it."
Caygill is not the only one returning to the office this year after what may not feel like much of a holiday.
Caygill's family delivered special treats to her while she was isolating on Christmas Day. Photo: Supplied
Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Simon Bridges said there were mixed feelings about the return to work.
"Some will be excited about it, some won't be and will have wished for a longer holiday but I think the reality is that business people enter 2023, wanting to make the most of it. Yeah, be sensible, but actually change the subject from Covid and do what they can to avoid a possible recession and do well in their business."
Clinical psychologist Dr Dougal Sutherland said it was important those who got Covid-19 over summer found time to get some rest.
"Certainly the vibe we're picking up from workplaces was that people were desperately in need of a break more so than perhaps is normal at Christmas time, people were just really hanging out for this.
"So I think it could well be for some people that they haven't really had that rest and they are starting the year again feeling exhausted, tired and burnt out."
He said those who got sick while on annual leave should swap it for sick leave, so they could take a break later on when they needed it.
"Perhaps if you can take a few longer weekends, or just work some shorter days, something that's going to allow you just to relax, switch off, unwind, particularly if you've missed out on having that because Covid doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon and the more that we can recharge our batteries, the better off we're going to be facing 2023."
Epidemiologist Dr Michael Baker said the world was entering its fourth year of the pandemic, which would bring new variants of the virus, some that were more infectious amid waning immunity.
"We are all absolutely over Covid-19, we want it to have gone away, but it hasn't.
"We can see the pattern of how it's likely to behave this year and we just have to now accept that it's a fact of life and it's going to be with us for the foreseeable future."
While everyone was keen to put the pandemic behind them and get back to a normal routine, Baker said it was important to do that safely.
"Unfortunately, it seems that the virus is settling down now and evolving a steady stream of new subvariants that are thriving because of the ability to get past our existing immunity and I think that is the reality we're going to have to manage effectively in the future."
He said reducing transmission of the virus remained as important as ever - encouraging people to test and isolate when sick - along with public health measures like wearing masks in poorly ventilated spaces.
