Publish Time: 2022-03-31 Origin: Site
On March 28, the Ministry of Health announced that New Zealand had recorded 12,882 new community cases and 11 deaths.
Another outbreak center is forming, New Zealand has now confirmed 609,327 cases, with 112,701 active cases.
It is worth noting that Canterbury is developing into another epicentre of the outbreak.
The number of cases in Canterbury is now roughly on par with Auckland, with 2119 and 2300 respectively.
Officially, Auckland has passed the Omicron peak but remains the region with the highest number of new cases.
However, Canterbury is coming close, only 181 cases short, and could overtake Auckland in the near future.
There are currently nearly 20,000 active cases in Canterbury.
2 Achilles heels of the New Zealand epidemic
Today epidemiologist Michael Baker has his thoughts on the Achilles heel of the New Zealand outbreak.
He believes New Zealand has two huge gaps that are entirely preventable.
The first is about children.
He noted that just over half of children aged 5-11 have been vaccinated.
The good news is that their mortality rate is low, but the bad news is that they are prone to long-term symptoms of Covid-19.
The second worrying gap concerns the strengthening needle.
Currently, nearly 1 million eligible New Zealanders have not received a booster shot.
"Strengthening for people is absolutely lifesaving, at least preventing you from getting seriously ill for a few weeks."
The truth about New Zealand's low death rate
Regarding "New Zealand has become the country with the lowest death rate of new crowns in the world", the heat has been very high recently.
But with that comes fears of an accelerating death rate.
Over the past few weeks, New Zealand has surpassed Australia and Canada in weekly deaths per capita, behind the United Kingdom and the European Union.
On March 24, New Zealand had an average of 0.18 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with 0.19 in the UK, 0.21 in the EU, 0.11 in Canada and 0.09 in Australia.
However, in terms of cumulative deaths, the death rate in New Zealand is still very low.
New Zealand had four cumulative deaths per 100,000 people as of March 24, compared with 22.8 in Australia, 98.4 in Canada, 232.6 in the EU and 244.9 in the UK.
Dion O'Neale, head of the Covid-19 Modelling Project, said New Zealand's Omicron mortality rate was roughly on par with international levels, but not outstanding by any standard.
Modelling expert Michael Plank also expects the current death rate to continue for several weeks, eventually with 300-500 deaths by the end of the first wave of Omicron.
One reason for the low mortality rate is the high rate of booster vaccinations among the elderly and young, including those with large numbers of infections.
Overall, New Zealand's outbreak response has been effective, and the death rate is currently the lowest in the world.
But Plank warned that a number of factors could contribute to the rise in death rates, including the spread of the virus in communities with lower booster vaccination rates, such as Māori, or in high-risk groups, such as the elderly, and the possibility of new variants or a second wave. .
And with borders about to open and winter coming, hard times are still to come.
The "long new crown" warning to young people and employers
Now, it is the key to solve each problem related to the epidemic, such as the "long new crown".
New Zealand lifted restrictions on gatherings over the weekend, and large numbers of students started partying.
Epidemiologist Michael Baker said his advice to young people remains to get vaccinated and booster shots, wear masks indoors, try to avoid infection, and be especially vigilant for long-term symptoms of Covid-19.
The "long new crown" is now also a problem faced by overseas employers.
A quarter of UK employers say Covid-19 is one of the main reasons employees get sick for prolonged periods of time, while an Oxford University study found that more than a third of patients had at least one symptom within six months, the most common is fatigue.
According to ACC data, fewer than six people in New Zealand are currently supported by the "long new crown".
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