Coronavirus: Modeller believes around half of New Zealand’s population has been infected with COVID-19 – Newshub

Posted: May 17, 2022 at 7:01 pm

It was a marathon, not a sprint, he said.

"On the other hand, people who have had COVID, we know that reinfection is an issue, we know that new variants evade immunity from ... infection of previous variants.

"It almost becomes a game of many people are going to get COVID, you'd like to get it as few times as possible. It's not just a case of once and done, it's once and then potentially a few months later, again."

People who didn't take precautions after infection were likely to get COVID again, O'Neale said.

He said it may not be a case of needing tougher restrictions but needing better messages about the restrictions we do have.

"Maybe that might mean a little bit of support and help for people to follow some of those restrictions.

"Take mask wearing as an example of something that's relatively low cost, it's low impact, it's something that as individuals we're all able to do. There are a lot of people out there who are wearing masks, a lot of them aren't wearing them that well - they're wearing them over their mouth, they're not wearing them over their nose for example."

Messaging to explain that COVID is an airborne disease and that a masks needed to be worn in a way that filters the air, was needed to help people to stay safe, he said.

"We've been dealing with a pandemic for a long time, it is going to be fatiguing. On the other hand, something that is fatiguing is recovering from COVID and people havinglong COVID and post viral syndromesare a classic disease that leaves people fatigued."

"If you think the fatigue's bad from wearing a mask, imagine what it is from that post viral syndrome."

RNZ

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Coronavirus: Modeller believes around half of New Zealand's population has been infected with COVID-19 - Newshub

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