The sixth wave of COVID-19, along with other illnesses including influenza and RSV, is putting enormous pressure on New Zealand's battered public health system. Last Sunday there were 279 people in hospital with COVID-19, almost double the number recorded during March and April.
Last week, 37 recent deaths were confirmed as Covid-related, including a man in his twenties, bringing the total official Covid death toll in New Zealand since the pandemic began to 4,120. This is almost certainly an underestimate.
The Health Ministry says 1,907 more people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, but it has claimed these deaths were “not related” to the coronavirus. In the case of another 245 deaths, it has not been confirmed whether Covid played any role.
Nearly two-thirds of the 4,788 cases reported last week were reinfections. This increases the likelihood of developing long Covid, which can seriously affect the brain, lungs, heart and other organs. The actual number of cases is undoubtedly far higher; testing and reporting are no longer officially encouraged.
The pandemic, which has killed more than 27 million people worldwide, is having a devastating impact because of deliberate policies adopted by capitalist governments that have prioritised the interests of corporate profit over life.
The former Labour Party-led Jacinda Ardern government of New Zealand ended its COVID elimination policy in October 2021 and lifted all public health measures the following year, leading to massive infection spread among the population. This criminal policy led to thousands of deaths and 40,816 hospitalisations due to COVID-19.
The current surge is being driven by new variants, particularly those known as KP.2 and KP.3, which are even more contagious than the JN.1 variant that was responsible for the previous wave earlier this year. Scientists have repeatedly warned that allowing the coronavirus to spread will lead to more immune-resistant strains, but governments have ignored these warnings.
In an effort to cope with the rising number of COVID patients, Wellington Regional Hospital recently reopened its dedicated COVID-19 ward from May 31 to June 11. It was closed three years ago. On June 14, Nelson Hospital reported that seven patients were being forced to wait in the emergency department due to a lack of beds and rising patient numbers.
Health workers in Dunedin told Otago Daily Times On June 11, a news agency reported that overcrowding at the city's emergency department was forcing patients to wait in ambulances, putting them at risk.
Public health experts continue to issue warnings for people to wear masks, stay home and get tested if they're sick. Epidemiologist Michael Baker told Newshub on Tuesday: “The last three waves have been getting bigger, cases are increasing, and … we've become quite complacent about this virus now, but we shouldn't be.” He warned that Covid is the country's deadliest infectious disease and “people of all ages are having long-term effects – long Covid.”
However, the government has stopped almost all public health messaging. There is no longer any need for people who test positive for Covid to self-isolate. At the end of June, rapid antigen tests will no longer be available for free anywhere. In another cost-cutting measure, the National Party-led government has ended free general practice consultations for people who are eligible to receive antiviral medication for Covid (the elderly and immunocompromised).
Despite efforts by the political establishment to persuade the public to ignore Covid, it continues to cause major disruption to everyday life. Material reported on June 6: “Education Ministry data showed the projected total number of days of sick leave for teachers across the country rose from 299,734 in 2018 to 401,832 in 2023.” Since the start of winter, there have been numerous reports of schools being closed or partially closed due to staff illness.
The crisis in the health system is exacerbated by a shortage of thousands of nurses and doctors and intense austerity measures. According to Council of Trade Unions economist Craig Rennie, in the 2024/2025 budget announced last month, “operating expenditure per capita on health has fallen by 1.3%, and real per capita expenditure (that is, adjusted for inflation) is down by 4.5% on current population projections.”
Healthcare and other services are starving while the government cuts taxes for the wealthy and spends billions of dollars expanding the prison system, police, and military in preparation for war.
Healthcare workers have repeatedly gone on strike in an attempt to retaliate. But these strikes are being isolated by the trade union bureaucracy, preventing any real fightback against the healthcare crisis and government austerity.
This includes education unions, which enforced the full reopening of schools and workplaces in 2022 and the removal of masking and other measures to reduce the spread of Covid. The pandemic provided further evidence that unions are not workers’ organisations but are the surrogates of big business and the state, whose job is to protect corporate profits.
Public health measures taken early in the pandemic in New Zealand, China and Australia demonstrated that COVID-19 could be eliminated from the community. If implemented globally, scientific policies – including quarantine, mass masking, social distancing and, where necessary, lockdowns – could save millions of lives.
However, the corporate and financial elite opposed such measures as an unacceptable cutback on profits and pressed for an end to “Zero Covid” policies in New Zealand and elsewhere. The ruling class has shown its total indifference to the lives of workers in its criminal response to the pandemic, as well as in its support for the massacres in Gaza and the reckless expansion of the war in Ukraine.
that's because, World Socialist Web Site The editorial board explains that the struggle against the pandemic – no less than the struggle against war and climate change – is “a political and revolutionary question that requires a socialist solution.” It requires the creation of an international socialist movement that will lead the working class in the fight to reorganise society based on human need rather than private profit.