Reinfections Will Keep Rising Amid Late-year Wave: COVID-19 Experts

Auckland, New Zealand: An epidemiologist warns COVID-19 reinfections – already making up a quarter of reported cases – will keep rising as New Zealand’s latest Omicron wave pushes case counts to levels not seen in months.

But Otago University’s Professor Michael Baker adds there’s also some worrying unknowns about the impact of reinfection, and is warning Kiwis to avoid another bout with a virus that’s running rampant over the festive season.

There have been 34,528 new community cases of COVID-19 in the past week and 40 deaths attributed to the virus, the Ministry of Health reported today.

As at yesterday, there were 3900 reported cases, and the seven-day rolling average stood at 4926 - the highest counts seen since August.

There were also 418 people in hospital at midnight, the highest number recorded since August 21. The seven-day rolling average of deaths attributable to COVID-19 is 3.

40 COVID-19 deaths

Of the 40 people whose deaths the ministry is reporting today: two were from Northland, 14 were from Auckland region, four were from Waikato, one was from Bay of Plenty, four were from Lakes, one was from Hawke’s Bay, three were from MidCentral, three were from Whanganui, one was from Wellington region, one was from Nelson Marlborough, three were from Canterbury, two were from Southern.

One was in their 40s, three were in their 50s, two were in their 60s, eight were in their 70s, 21 were in their 80s and five were aged over 90. Of these people, 16 were women and 24 were men.

10 people were in intensive care as of midnight Sunday.

Of the new cases in the past 7 days, 9099 were reinfections.

Reinfections accounted for about a quarter of reported cases, which reflected only a subset of New Zealand’s overall picture of Covid-19 infection.

Speaking ahead of the latest release of weekly COVID-19 case numbers today, Baker said reinfections would naturally account for an increasing proportion of all cases the longer the virus was able to circulate in our communities.

Photo: NZ herald The Ministry of Health is continuing to report thousands of fresh cases – around a quarter of them reinfections – as the country moves through the second of two over-lapping, late-year bumps.