Shortland Street producer Oliver Driver says elements of Covid-19 have been "a happy accident" for the show's production.
He told 1News despite half the cast being in isolation at one point, the production team was able to re-write parts of the script "on the fly".
“Sometimes you do these things and what you end up coming up with in the panicky emergency moments is great. There were some sort of really nice moments where other characters had to take over little bits of the story from other characters and that actually added to the feel of a busy hospital," Driver said.
"There's actually some things that we've learned that we'll take into the show and kind of go, 'We actually like this, let's keep doing a bit more of it.'"
After two years of Covid-19, Driver told 1News it's time for Kiwis to move on with life.
“It’s [Covid-19] been such a Boogeyman for so long in our country, and rightfully so, because we were sort of trying to do an elimination and a keep [it] out strategy.
"But that kind of feeling of the dread of getting it and the dread of other people getting it, we have to move on from that now because they’re all coming back, you know. It’s not like you get Omicron and that’s it you aren't coming back,” he said.
While most people who get Omicron do recover, a UK study has found even mild Covid-19 infections could result in "significant" changes to the brain.
A UK study looking at brain imaging scans found reduced grey matter thickness, tissue damage and brain shrinkage in positive cases. (Source: 1News)
Disability Rights Commissioner Paula Tesoriero also warned that for some, including people with a disability, Omicron still posed a risk.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Health reported seven more deaths of people who had Covid-19.
Shortland Street is filmed five weeks in advance, airing every weeknight on TVNZ 2.
Driver said: "We aren't the kind of show that can just put filming on hold for a few weeks."
Covid-19 was written into Shortland Street's storyline to an extent, but Driver said it was difficult because he didn't want it to take over the show.
“It’s definitely ironic to be shooting a show in a hospital, that's why we also cant reflect the realities of what's going on, the hospitals are massively overcrowded with huge amounts of extreme things going on and we can't show that in our little world. It’s just not possible," he said.
The show came to a halt in the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown but had since returned to our screens with far fewer hiccups.
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