At-risk Kiwis warned of Covid repeats
Reinfection within 90 days rare but possible, new health advice says
Older New Zealanders and people with high-risk health conditions are urged to stay cautious about Covid even if they’ve just had the virus because reinfection can occur, new health advice says.
It comes as director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield warned yesterday that it’s likely only half of the country’s infections are being reported.
Bloomfield said some of those cases could be because people didn’t have symptoms or were mild, and so weren’t getting tested, while others may be not reporting their positive rapid antigen test results.
The Ministry of Health estimated the levels of reporting in the wider population based on the number of positive tests among border workers who were being surveillance tested.
There were 7441 new Covid cases in the community reported yesterday and 29 virus-related deaths.
Of the deaths, two people were aged in their 20s, three in their 30s, three in their 50s, four in their 60s, six in their 70s, three in their 80s and eight over the age of 90.
There were 398 people in hospital with the virus, including six in intensive care.
Bloomfield said it seemed the country had probably reached the bottoming out of cases and hospitalisations from this outbreak, and may be on the way back up.
“We thought our case numbers would come back to a baseline of around 3000 to 5000 a day, in fact they seem to have bottomed out at around 7500 a day. And hospitalisations have levelled off at the mid-300s.”
The ministry yesterday released advice on reinfections to urge doctors and healthcare workers to remain vigilant when patients show up with respiratory infections as we head into winter.
“Current evidence shows the chance of having Covid-19 again within 90 days of a first infection, especially if it is the same variant, is low but it can occasionally happen,” said the ministry’s deputy director of public health Dr Harriette Carr.
“Ensuring you minimise your chances of catching Covid-19 again is especially important for older people, those with higher-risk health conditions, or people who have frequent close contact with vulnerable people.”
People who become unwell with respiratory symptoms within 90 days after a Covid-19 infection but were low-risk should stay at home
and recover until 24 hours after most symptoms cleared up, the ministry advice said.
“We don’t advise routinely retesting at home within this period, but if someone becomes increasingly unwell they should seek advice from their GP or Healthline,” Carr said.
People who are more at-risk who became unwell again within 90
days of their initial illness should seek further advice from a health practitioner.
People who became infected more than 90 days after catching Covid-19 should treat their new case as if it was a first infection, Carr said.
Bloomfield said they were also continuing to monitor the overseas situation, particularly subvariants
that could cause reinfection.
In North America, the B.A.2.12.1 subvariant was driving up case numbers again and made up 40 per cent of infections, he said.
Meanwhile Britain and Australia had experienced two distinct Omicron outbreaks — and each one had caused quite a significant increase in cases.
Bloomfield also said health
authorities had been anticipating and planning for concurrent infections of influenza over the coming winter.
He encouraged people to get a flu jab this winter and noted that mask use protected people from both Covid and the flu.
Of the 29 Covid-related deaths reported yesterday, 14 were people who had died in the previous two
days, and 15 were people who had died between March 24 and May 7.
The total number of deaths in New Zealand of people with Covid is now at 940, with the seven-day rolling average at 14.
The rolling average of community case numbers was 7548 — lower than last Friday when it was 7555 — and the number of active cases at 52,826 across the country.