{"id":319613,"date":"2026-03-08T20:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T20:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/319613\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T20:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T20:32:10","slug":"ninth-wave-of-covid-19-suggests-wane-in-immunity-expert-says-everyone-must-act-to-reduce-impact-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/319613\/","title":{"rendered":"Ninth wave of Covid-19 suggests wane in immunity, expert says everyone must \u2018act to reduce impact\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
In the past four years, there had been roughly two waves per year.<\/p>\n
Baker said the waves were equally distributed between winter and summer.<\/p>\n
Michael Baker says people are not getting booster shots. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
But this wave wasn\u2019t following the pattern of a new subvariant emerging, which suggested a wane in immunity.<\/p>\n
Baker said people were not getting booster shots and for many, it had been quite some time since they were last infected and antibodies were dropping.<\/p>\n
It was enough to give the virus \u201cthe edge\u201d.<\/p>\n
Baker said the virus was still New Zealand\u2019s most impactful infectious disease – equating to about 1000 deaths a year – compared to influenza, which accounted for about 500.<\/p>\n
Covid-19 was also filling up hospitals – and everyone needed to \u201cact to reduce impact\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
Baker said there was no data to show if people were still testing but many had become more complacent.<\/p>\n
Tests were no longer paid for by the Government, making them unaffordable for some people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a problem,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n
Apart from getting boosters – which were available every six months for people over 30 – Baker said self-isolation was the next best way to stop the spread.<\/p>\n
He said if people had respiratory symptoms, they should stay home and get a test if they can afford it.<\/p>\n
Covid-19 was being tracked through wastewater and hospitalisations – which were currently showing a \u201cbig wave\u201d.<\/p>\n
As well as topping up antibodies, Baker said regular boosters reduced the risk of long Covid.<\/p>\n
The \u201cdisabling illness\u201d was not being monitored at all in New Zealand which Baker said was a \u201cgap\u201d in tracking the virus.<\/p>\n
He suggested periodic surveys would be enough to track how many people are living with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the past four years, there had been roughly two waves per year. Baker said the waves were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4619,81317,26095,1601,134,6984,23500,78,9097,111,139,35837,69,1118,4887,312,30947,61,15897,24358],"class_list":["post-319613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-act","tag-covid19","tag-everyone","tag-expert","tag-health","tag-immunity","tag-impact","tag-in","tag-must","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-ninth","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-reduce","tag-says","tag-suggests","tag-to","tag-wane","tag-wave"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}