A new Covid variant is spreading quickly with a spike of the illness shown in wastewater testing and as the winter flu season ramps up too.
Institute of Environmental Science and Research science leader David Winter said the prevalence of Covid in the community started rising at the start of May with the introduction of a new variant, known as Nimbus.
“This is the first time we’ve tracked a variant growing as quickly as this one since the summer of ’23/24,” he said. “It’s the first time we’ve had a really fast growing variant in the community for quite a while”.
Recent wastewater testing showed much more Covid in the community than was being reported.
Dr Luke Bradford of the Royal College of GPs said there were likely to be a few reasons for that. “You have to pay to do a RAT test. It can be relatively mild now as an illness. A lot of people just aren’t testing and, if they are, they just aren’t reporting it.”
Winter flu season usually ran from May to October with a peak in the middle and an increase in hospital admissions. So far trends appeared similar to previous years, although there has been an increase in the number of hospitalised patients in Auckland with influenza-like symptoms.
Nelson’s urgent care clinic, the Medical and Injury Centre, was treating around 90 patients a day but expecting more.
Nurse practitioner Andrea Chapman said it was not unusual for the waiting room to be full — and more people waiting outside too.
“Each year seems to be a little bit different. Last year, we had a lot of Influenza A which was making people really sick.
“The year before that was a lot of RSV affecting a lot of children… so we’re not quite sure what’s going to arrive this year.”
Chapman said medical practices planned for winter but getting enough nurses and doctors was a challenge.
“If our staffing levels are low, and we’re having trouble recruiting at the moment, then there’s a limit to how many patients we can see.”
The centre worked closely with the emergency department at Nelson Hospital next door. “If we don’t have the staff here then we do have to send more to the emergency department and take less of their redirects to here.”
She said paying nurses in the community the same as those in hospitals would help with staffing pressures.