New Zealand saw four times the number of flu cases this winter compared to previous years but one health expert says we've "fared pretty well".
The acting chief clinical officer for the Northern Regional Health Coordination Centre, Dr Anthony Jordan, told Breakfast this winter has “been long and it’s been tough”.
“We have to remember that this is our first big winter since the borders opened so we were expecting it to be a tough winter."
He said while influenza rates were “really high this winter”, having seen “four times the number of cases of flu than we had seen in prior years”, we’ve “fared pretty well”.
The NRHCC's Dr Anthony Jordan says this winter has "been long and it's been tough". (Source: Breakfast)
“We hadn’t seen flu in a long time so it just had so much more opportunity to evade immunity and infect us this year.”
Jordan said while the number of flu cases spiked, Covid-19 cases are beginning to trend downwards.
“For all cases, we are seeing week-on-week steady declines in rates of Covid, which is a relief, and I think people are encouraged by seeing that and we will see those numbers plateau through September.”
But he warned the “spectre in the background is what’s the next variant? When’s the next wave?"
“We know from overseas that you can get subsequent waves. It’s not a seasonal thing, Covid, so we can actually see it reemerge again. We’ve just got to be really cautious, looking overseas to see what develops.”
Jordan added while “most people are probably less complacent than they’ve ever been” after more than two years of Covid, the country’s face mask use rates “are much higher than if you were to look overseas".
“I think people still get it - people don’t want to get sick and they also don’t want to pass anything on to anyone else.”
He said the NRHCC will continue to focus on Covid-19 and the emergence of new variants, as well as ensuring the healthcare system is “fit and able to deal with the challenges it has ahead”.
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