Five years on, COVID remains NZ’s most important infectious disease—it still demands a strong response

Medical Xpress February 26, 2025
Michael Baker, Amanda Kvalsvig, John Donne Potter, Matire Harwood and Nick Wilson, The Conversation

This Friday, February 28, marks five years since COVID-19 was first reported in Aotearoa New Zealand. At a population level, it remains our most harmful infectious disease, with thousands of hospitalizations and 664 deaths last year.

Understandably perhaps, many people want to move on from the early pandemic years, and there is a temptation to minimize COVID’s threat now the emergency response has passed.

But it deserves a proportionate response that draws on the rich evidence we now have of how to minimize the harms of respiratory infections and the health and economic benefits that come from managing them well.

The epidemiology of the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to change. Hospitalizations provide the most consistent measure of incidence trends. Wastewater testing...

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