Listen Now: 
Download AudioA reminder to keep up with your Covid shots as the second wave of Omicron starts to bite into the health system.
Rawiri Jansen from the Māori pandemic response group Uruta says while vaccination is no longer the focus of intense media attention, Māori providers are still hard at work getting out shots and boosters.
Immunity does wane, and even for those who have had Covid – which is up to about 40 percent of New Zealanders – the protection only seems to last about 28 days.
Getting Covid a second time is no less severe.
“If we look at the severe outcome from Covid, your risks go up if you get it a second time if you get it a third time, and I’m talking about the relatively rare but severe impact of Covid – it might be neurological conditions or strokes or it might be cardiovascular, it might be renal, or it might be death. Those risks go up with reinfection,” Dr Jansen says
The pandemic still has a way to play so boosters are important.
RELATED NEWS
