Covid 'endemic in NZ' means we're unlikely to see zero cases - professor

September 29, 2021

Professor Des Gorman explains what’s behind the numbers.

The sudden spike in Covid-19 cases in the Auckland community is proof the current alert level restrictions are not working, according to a professor at the University of Auckland's School of Medicine.

It comes after the country recorded 45 new Covid-19 community cases, all in Auckland, on Wednesday.

"We're now seeing that this effort we've put into elimination is probably not going to get us there," Professor Des Gorman told Seven Sharp. 

"In fact, we're going to see sporadic or endemic cases for the rest of our time.

"The time has come now to say, 'look, we need to actually change our strategy' - not just the longer term, but in the intermediate term as well."

Gorman says we "need to be flooding the areas of interest" with saliva-based testing "because this is not spread across Auckland, this is quite localised in different parts of Auckland".

"I think we need to take a very localised approach to actually flushing out the undetected cases."

He says while Auckland "hopefully won't go down the same path" as Sydney due to the higher levels of vaccination at this stage in the outbreak, it's "clear to see" that our current Alert Level 3 restrictions are not "getting on top of this".

"We need something different. You just keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome...that's a working definition of insanity. 

"It's time to do something different; we've got to focus on the areas of interest and we've got to do mass testing - that's the solution."

Gorman says while he believes it's the way forward, it's unlikely we will see zero cases, adding that Covid-19 is now "endemic in New Zealand - that's a reality".

"We will learn to live with it. With time, we'll make our decisions about what we're prepared to do to manage risk...we'll find out what people's appetite is for this."

He says while vaccine passports are "a way out" of the pandemic, the Government should elevate the vaccination rates not by "trying to push people who are vaccine hesitant into vaccination" but by articulating "what the privilege and reward is for being vaccinated".

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