Europe- New Zealand has reported over one million cases of COVID -19 infection after they have spent the initial 18 months of the pandemic without any restriction and free from the virus.
The nation has reported the highest number of cases worldwide since Omicron breached the borders in the month of December 2021, and the government lifted up most of the rules and regulations in March.
Moreover, on Tuesday, the official 1 million case milestone means that about 20 percent of the population has now been infected, but the modellers have mentioned that the actual number of the infections is three times higher.
Dr Dion O’Neale of COVID Modelling Aotearoa, based at the University of Auckland, highlighted in the statement, “We know that the number of cases that we’re seeing is just a fraction of the true number of infections that are happening.”
Along with this, O’Neale highlighted that modellers’ best estimates were that official case numbers recorded about a third of actual infections, which means that New Zealand would have now had around 3m infections.
He said that some of the people were asymptomatic, some of them did not report positive test results, some did not have easy access to testing, as well as some people reluctant to get vaccinated were also unwilling to test or report an infection.
In spite of the increase in cases, New Zealand’s death rate has remained relatively low by international standards.
The maximum number of the publicly reported deaths from the COVID-19 infection is now 876 for the entirety of the pandemic. That figure includes all those who die within 28 days of contracting the virus.
Furthermore, Hong Kong is another COVID-elimination state which has reported over 9,300 deaths for its population of 7.48m.
However, the low death rate in New Zealand has been assisted by its high levels of vaccination, 95 percent of adults are double-vaccination as well as 90 percent have had an additional booster shot.
