Even as the country braces for the Omicron wave of the pandemic that is into its third year, there is a glimmer of hope that we are finally into its endgame.
Individuals, businesses, organisations, cities, states and nations are now peering into their post-pandemic plans.
Today, let us look at Miri, Sarawak's second city. As if to say the city is back, it was announced last week that Scoot, the Singaporean low-cost carrier, is adding Miri to its flight network from the island republic.
To understand what this means to Miri, it is important to note that, pre-pandemic, Miri was to Bruneian holiday-makers what Johor Baru was to Singaporean travellers.
Like Johor Baru, Miri is just a short drive away from the Bru-neian border.
Weekends in Miri used to be teeming with Bruneian residents seeking a break or a shopping spree.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Sarawak border to Brunei was closed, cutting off not just the horde of weekend Bru-neian revellers but also Sarawak families with relatives working in the sultanate.
Even before the pandemic, Miri had been losing Bruneian travellers to Kota Kinabalu, even though the Sabah capital is a few hours further north of Brunei.
But if the new direct air connection to Singapore may be a boon to Miri's tourism prospects, it will be a long-term one.
The air connectivity owes more, I suspect, to Miri's efforts at diversifying its economy away from tourism.
Miri remains the hub to what has always been its main bread and butter: the oil and gas (O&G) industry.
Oil Well Number 1, atop Canada Hill overlooking the city and the sea beyond it, and now a monument to the industry's pioneering days just over a century ago, has become a tourist draw.
It is undoubtedly partly the good work put in by Miri city's fathers and the state leadership that last year snared Shell Malay-sia back to the city.
Miri will thus become the national corporate headquarters of the multinational corporation when the shift is complete.
An estimated 2,000 highly-paid Shell corporate employees from Kuala Lumpur and Sabah will eventually be relocated to the city.
They will complement the O&G production crews based in Miri even as the industry moved largely offshore over the years.
The influx of out-of-town corporate types calling Miri home will do wonders to its cityscape, from upmarket property demand to the upgrading of the city's lifestyle options.
This will be the icing on the cake of the massive urban transformation that Miri has undergone in recent years.
Beachfront reclamation works have expanded the city beyond its once sleepy core.
This is a crowning moment for Miri's best-known homegrown Samling Group of Companies, which has parleyed its beginnings as a timber and plantations play into property development and transforming the city, even taking its brand to Kuching and Kuala Lumpur.
Miri also had the foresight to attract Australia's Curtin University to locate a branch campus in the city.
This has meant that not only is Miri a draw for casual visitors from across the Bruneian border but also some of Brunei's students. The city's transformation has won praise even from jaded Sarawakian visitors.
A Kuching resident, who used to live and work in Miri, came away after a recent visit saying he believed the latter is offering the state capital a run for the money in terms of activities.
A Kuching businessman offered perhaps the best compliment when he said he wanted to "migrate" to Miri, elaborating that it offers living and lifestyle options usually associated with cities in Australia and New Zealand. Miri is, therefore, open and ready to welcome back visitors and perhaps new residents from other parts of Sarawak and the nation.
The writer views developments in the nation, region and wider world from his vantage point in Kuching