Middlemore Hospital is seeing increasing cases of respiratory illness as winter starts to bite.
Te Whatu Ora Counties Manukau chief medical officer Andrew Connolly says while there is ongoing concern about Covid-19, influenza can be particularly bad for tamariki, kaumatua and people with underlying heart or lung disease.
“It’s really nasty. The vaccine’s pretty effective. It’s just one part of it so we want warm houses, we’ve got the Jammies for June campaign going on so we want our kids to be nice and warm when they go to bed but the vaccine, avoiding large crowds if you feel sick, popping a mask on all helps,” he says.
Dr Connolly says the Jammies for June campaign fronted by Dame Valerie Adams aims to raise enough for at least 15,000 pairs of pajamas for primary school and younger kids.
