Stories by Rowan Quinn

The Omicron outbreak is like a Mexican wave moving away from Auckland through the rest of the country, a leading rural GP says.

Nearly half a million New Zealanders have now officially had Covid-19. Health correspondent Rowan Quinn talks to a pregnant nurse, a parent and an immunocompromised student about their experiences.

After weeks of stories of stresses from the shop floor because of doctor and nurse shortages, the true extent has been revealed.

The Covid-19 vaccine booster needs a rebrand because it sounds like it is an "optional extra", says a public health expert, as worry rises about stalling rates.

Auckland hospitals are dealing with far more Covid patients than they predicted in even their worst case scenarios.

Doctors are stepping in to cover some nursing duties as staff absences reach a critical point at Middlemore Hospital.

There are hundreds of frontline staff off across the city's hospitals, and emergency departments in Auckland have been swamped with cases on some days.

One half of a large elective surgery centre has been temporarily closed so staff can be diverted help Middlemore Hospital.

Data modeller Michael Plank says hospital numbers are doubling roughly every five days and if that continues, the number of people in hospital on 6 March could be close to 800. Audio

More than 440 of the Counties Manukau DHB staff not at work because of Covid-19 are frontline rostered staff.

Frontline health workers are feeling the pressure as the Omicron outbreak rapidly escalates in Auckland.

An Auckland Hospital nurse says his colleagues are working extra shifts or doing different jobs as Covid-19 takes a toll on staffing and case numbers rise.

The decision was made at a high-level meeting yesterday, with the situation expected to continue for four weeks at two Auckland hospitals. Audio

Emergency department corridor waits were supposed to be abolished years ago but doctors say the problem is hitting crisis levels again because hospitals are so clogged.

A major independent report has found nurses are overworked and exhausted because of consistent understaffing and that patients are not always getting full care.

People with Covid-19 are set to become their own contact tracers, and some details of an online system due to go live soon have been revealed.

Queenstown Central is one of the least boosted suburbs in the country, as the town deals with its first known Omicron cases.

A group of New Zealand-trained nurses - some working with Covid patients - are considering leaving the country because they can't get a visa to live here.

Latest modelling by Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa suggests a peak of 800 people in hospital on any given day at best, but well over 3000 at worst. Audio

Rural GP Network clinical director Jeremy Webber says his colleagues are waiting for the outbreak "with some trepidation".

Covid-19 data modeller Michael Plank says a significant proportion could become infected with the variant over the course of the new outbreak, but there's still a lot of uncertainty. Audio

Modelling for when Omicron hits suggests a peak of 190 Covid-19 patients in hospital on any given day, based on a prediction of about 1800 community cases a day in the city. Audio

Health officials are talking to their counterparts in Australia and the UK to learn as much as possible about what they are up against.

The country's Covid-19 red zones should stay that way for now - even highly vaccinated Auckland, says epidemiologist Rod Jackson.

Auckland District Health Board held an emergency meeting last month but its Covid-19-heavy content is being kept secret, as are the agendas of "informal" meetings it's held weekly during the outbreak.