People wear masks in Auckland during the Omicron outbreak. Photo / Alex Burton
People wear masks in Auckland during the Omicron outbreak. Photo / Alex Burton
EDITORIAL
This week shapes as a crucial one for the public after Omicron made its first bound upwards in confirmed case numbers.
The next few days offer the best chance for people who are still yet to get a booster shot to do so - before infection rates become muchmore widespread. More than 100,000 people got boosters over the weekend.
Monday's jump to 981 new cases in one day shows that Omicron - while slow to get under way here since its first community cases - is now taking off, as it previously has in other countries. New locations of interest span the North and South Islands.
Hospital figures were 39 with no Covid patients in ICU and authorities will hope that disparity between case numbers and severity continues.
New Zealand is now officially in phase two of the Omicron response.
That involves trying to slow the further spread and attempting to protect vulnerable populations. There will be greater use of rapid antigen tests and shorter isolation times.
Essentially, it's an acknowledgement that transmission has become too rapid to be widely contained with contact tracing. Nevertheless, people scanning and getting tests if they are symptomatic help authorities monitor the surge and identify locations of interest.
Dr David Welch, of the University of Auckland, said: "We are all likely to encounter Covid in the coming weeks."
People will have different attitudes towards the risk. Some vaccinated people will rely on those shots to avoid a severe case of Omicron. They will instead hope for a mild version if they are exposed to the virus and to potentially avoid long Covid.
If people want to be more cautious, they have to be proactive on their own behalf. And doing so while case numbers rise will help others.
That means people who want to avoid infection should assume it could be around their local street corner and, accordingly, mask up or keep their distance from others.
If social get-togethers or appointments or trips can be put off until the surge in cases subsides, it would be safer.
Any time spent indoors in a public area should be kept short and involve wearing good quality masks. Since vaccinated people can catch and pass on Omicron infections, vaccine passes are less effective - places such as eateries, where masks have to be removed, need to be well ventilated.
Te Pūnaha Matatini's Dion O'Neale said that in this second phase when cases are over a thousand "people who have noticed they've got symptoms or have got a positive result, you want them as soon as possible to notify all their contacts - don't go and wait for public health to tell you what to do".
Although the stand-off on the lawn in Wellington has attracted people's attention, it doesn't have the personal impact that this next period of the pandemic will have.
