Handle9: In every country the vast majority of COVID positive people isolate at home. In every country COVID some COVID positive people die at home.
This is far from unique to NZ.
Correct. However It is unique to NZ in terms of this being a new phase for us in our pandemic experience. We have not for 100 years had a dying and recovering at home strategy on a population sized scale.
As such it is a radical shift, we are joining the rest of the world.
The main point is our health infrastructure that dictates the degree of risk, the ability to triage, and the options for people in a large wave, match Mexico.
I am guessing that if the average Kiwi got Covid in Mexico, that they would be a bit stressed out about the health care systems capacity there. We have ignored the reality of ours, now we are living it, which is why we didn't have a freedom day at 80% vaccinated. Second worst healthcare in the OECD in terms of resourcing will cause deaths on a different scale to other countries if we had of gotten it wrong.
Also our health stats as a society are crap for a developed country. Lots of compounding problems led to our somewhat unique way of managing Covid and will dictate what happens in future.
I wonder what our Oxygen capacity is like. So critical in moderate to severe covid cases, certainly the one intervention that has saved the most lives in hospitals, you won't get an Oxygen cylinder at home readily if there is a shortage like India. However we have this great vaccine roll out so we are looking to have dodged a bullet for the most part.


