Editorial: Omicron has become our familiar foe

Many of us know of someone isolating at home with Covid-19 but the peak and decrease in infections is within sight. Photo / 123rf, File

EDITORIAL

By now, many of us will at least know of someone who has caught Covid-19.

The rampant spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant has infected more than 166,000 people in New Zealand and more than 1 per cent of the population were active Covid-19 cases in the last week of February.

While the virus seeks out more hosts, there is some reassuring information coming through. It does appear we are on track or even slightly ahead of predictions to peak in case numbers this coming or following week.

The Northern Regional Health Co-ordination Centre's chief clinical officer, Andrew Old, said there were 22,535 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand yesterday. There were 562 people in hospital nationally and 11 people in intensive care units.

It was sobering to hear five more people with Covid died yesterday but all were in hospital with unrelated health conditions.

After Thursday's 23,183 cases were announced, there may be some hope the peak may have already occurred and the trend for a decrease in testing over the weekend may reinforce this. However, modellers believe this unlikely but we are in sight of the peak.

The fly in the ointment is the cohort of 938,000 people who are eligible for the vaccine booster but haven't yet taken it up. The third inoculation provides the best protection against infection and illness from Omicron.

Should the virus get amongst an unboosted community, the spread can bloom again.

Many overseas territories have lifted restrictions over recent weeks after Omicron peaked and waned. We are almost there too - at much less cost to health and life.