Experts fear the country could be at the start of a second omni wave; The elderly are the main victims.
A country that once had the most aggressive policy to control the coronavirus is facing fears of a new wave of the disease and is now the country with the highest number of deaths from covid-19 in the world.
New Zealand saw a sharp increase in the number of cases, deaths and hospitalizations in July. Experts fear the country could be at the beginning of the second wave of the omicron variant.
836 people in the country were hospitalized due to covid on Monday, 25/7? An increase of more than 50% compared to June. Due to Covid, some hospitals are working at full capacity.
The country currently leads the world in the ranking of deaths from covid: 4.37 deaths per million people in the daily average of the last seven days. The figure is four times higher than recorded in Brazil and three times that of the USA.
The latest bulletin, released on Monday 25/7, stated that 9,256 new cases were registered in the previous 24 hours. New Zealand has a population of 5.1 million (slightly more than the population of the Federal District’s metropolitan area).
Covid mainly killed the elderly. According to the local newspaper New Zealand Herald, the average age of people hospitalized for the disease is 64.
5 ohmron sub-variant is behind the current wave in New Zealand, according to officials. But the government says there’s been a slight drop in the seven-day average daily cases: from 9,534 last week to 8,335 now. The government itself acknowledges that cases can be underreported.
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New Zealand has been one of the countries that has taken the most restrictive measures against the pandemic in the past two years – strict border controls to prevent the spread of the virus in the community, so much so that it was almost closed to visitors until February. .
This year, however, the government abandoned its zero covid policy after vaccination campaigns. Since then, the virus has spread more easily, reaching the highest recorded numbers this month.
Image: Getty Images
The local press reported that hospitals and clinics were under pressure in the face of the new wave. Still, the Ministry of Health says hospitalization levels are below those seen during the March peak.
According to the Reuters news agency, the Ministry of Education advised schools to adopt back-to-school masks this week. New Zealand offers free masks and quick tests.
The government attributes the increase in Covid cases to a number of factors.
“There is no doubt that the rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, the worst flu season in memory, and staff shortages are all combined. [nos hospitais] “It is putting healthcare workers and the entire healthcare system under extreme pressure,” New Zealand’s Minister of Covid response, Ayesha Verrall, said last week.
“Our modeling shows that we are at the beginning of a second wave of omicrons that may be larger than the first, and the more infectious variant BA.5 has become the dominant strain in the community.”
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said last week that the number of Covid cases could drop in the near future, based on an analysis of the presence of the virus in sewers.
“Even if the number of cases drops, it takes about two weeks to see this in hospitalizations,” he said at a press conference.
But the Minister of Covid Response said the country could be at the start of a second wave of omnis.
– This text was published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-62306987.
source: Noticias
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