“The stakes are high, but it’s a beautiful challenge.”

Performer Lyndon Watts was talking about the Broadway hit Hamilton, which officially premiered in Sydney last night, but he may as well have been referring to the path ahead for all of us when COVID-19 restrictions are lifted in NSW tomorrow.

This time last year, we had just lived through a week of ever-escalating orders that dramatically changed our way of life. It ended with most children learning from home, adults working remotely, businesses shut down and playgrounds and entertainment venues closed.

NSW was recording up to 212 cases of COVID-19 a day, many of them locally acquired, and international arrivals were about to spend their first night in enforced hotel quarantine.

It has been a long year. But with most of our frontline health and quarantine workers now vaccinated, providing an extra level of protection between those arriving from overseas and the community, Premier Gladys Berejiklian has clearly decided it’s time to put some of the pain of the past year behind us and recapture some of the joy of pre-COVID life.

We will now be allowed to sing and dance wherever we like – including in places of worship and nightclubs. There will be no cap on the invitation list for weddings, funerals and events at home. And entertainment venues like theatres and stadiums can now operate at 100 per cent capacity.

It is great news, especially for businesses and industries that have really struggled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and face more hardship in the months ahead as JobKeeper is withdrawn today. That includes the arts sector, which has wasted no time in getting back on the stage and throwing open the box office. As well as Hamilton last night Opera Australia’s harbour production of La Traviata opened on Friday, after a delay of 364 days – it was meant to open on March 27 last year but was cancelled two weeks before opening night.

We have worked hard to get to this point but as we learnt at Christmas time, when COVID-19 escaped into the community twice and forced renewed restrictions, nothing is certain in a time of pandemic. The risk of community transmission is much lower now our frontline workers have been vaccinated, which wasn’t the case in December, but we are not risk-free. This was only further illustrated on Friday when Queensland recorded a new community case of COVID-19.

Personal outdoor gatherings will still be limited in NSW to 200 people, venues with more than 25 people inside must still adhere to the “one person for every two square metres” rule and while masks will no longer be mandatory on public transport in Sydney, they will still be strongly recommended.