February 29, 2024
Covid still pandemic four years on
The chief medical officer for Te Whatu Ora Counties Manukau says four years on from the first Covid-19 cases in Aotearoa, the virus is showing no sign of going away.
Those first cases reported at the end of February 2020 were a couple travelling back from Iran.
New Zealand went into full lockdown a month later.
As of this week, New Zealand has had over 2.5 million reported cases, but fewer than 4000 deaths attributed to the virus.
Andrew Connolly says while cases in metropolitan Auckland are coming down from the fifth wave, people with underlying health issuesshould still exercise caution.”Just being smart about big crowds, making sure we’re up to date with the vaccines and things like that all help. So we have to keep taking it seriously. I’m hoping one day just decides to shove off but it’s showing no sign of doing so,” he says