{"id":319723,"date":"2026-03-08T22:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T22:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/319723\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T22:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T22:25:08","slug":"ninth-wave-of-covid-has-hit-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/319723\/","title":{"rendered":"Ninth wave of COVID has hit New Zealand."},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"break-words  verse-paragraph-md font-regular mb-4 min-h-2\">According to<a class=\"decoration-from-font text-paragraph-sm\/normal md:text-paragraph-md\/normal linear cursor-pointer transition-all disabled:cursor-not-allowed disabled:opacity-40 group inline-block underline underline-offset-4 focus-visible:rounded-md focus-visible:outline-offset-4 font-bold hover:text-brand-300 focus-visible:text-brand-300 visited:text-brand-300 disabled:text-neutral-300\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tewhatuora.govt.nz\/for-health-professionals\/data-and-statistics\/covid-19\/reporting\">official data from Health NZ,<\/a> there were 322 cases, 19 deaths, and 50 hospital admissions in the last seven days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"break-words  verse-paragraph-md font-regular mb-4 min-h-2\">Public Health Professor Michael Baker believed this represented a ninth wave of COVID in the community, and wanted people to take it seriously.<\/p>\n<p class=\"break-words  verse-paragraph-md font-regular mb-4 min-h-2\">The wave was put down to \u2018waning immunity\u2019, with protection from the vaccine decreasing after six months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"break-words  verse-paragraph-md font-regular mb-4 min-h-2\">Baker wanted to offer a wake-up call of sorts to the public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"break-words  verse-paragraph-md font-regular mb-4 min-h-2\">\u200b\u201c[COVID-19] is still our most important infectious disease still, and it\u2019s ahead of influenza, which in the past was our biggest infectious disease killer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"break-words  verse-paragraph-md font-regular mb-4 min-h-2\">\u200b\u201cYou don&#8217;t want to have it over and over again&#8230; every day, there will be lots of people getting disabled from this infection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"break-words  verse-paragraph-md font-regular mb-4 min-h-2\">\u200bA number of suggestions were offered on combating this new wave, including getting booster shots, possibly wearing masks on public transport, and isolating if you test positive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"break-words  verse-paragraph-md font-regular mb-4 min-h-2\">It was especially suggested for vulnerable groups, such as older people or those who have an underlying illness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"break-words  verse-paragraph-md font-regular mb-4 min-h-2\">\u200bThe public health system was also being urged to do better in its response to the illness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"break-words  verse-paragraph-md font-regular mb-4 min-h-2\">Despite the official data showing the new wave, no messaging was put out at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"break-words  verse-paragraph-md font-regular mb-4 min-h-2\">\u200b\u201cI think we need to put much more emphasis on managing this problem&#8230; we do need an integrated approach and putting out the messaging and doing all the other things right,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"break-words  verse-paragraph-md font-regular mb-4 min-h-2\">\u200bHe also had not forgotten about the government\u2019s decision to stop providing free RAT tests from October 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"break-words  verse-paragraph-md font-regular mb-4 min-h-2\">\u200b\u201cTests were no longer paid for by the government, making them unaffordable for some people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According toofficial data from Health NZ, there were 322 cases, 19 deaths, and 50 hospital admissions in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-319723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319723","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=319723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}