Stories by Rowan Quinn

Exhausted lab workers working long hours testing for Covid-19 are warning safety could be compromised if the huge demand continues.

Emergency physician Mya Cubitt is one of hundreds of New Zealanders working in hospitals in Victoria as the state deals with hundreds of cases a day - and deaths, which have also been on the rise.

A woman tested at an Auckland pop-up clinic had to queue in a tent with other symptomatic people - with little social distancing and hardly anyone wearing a mask.

Covid-19 could have been spreading in Auckland for weeks, with dozens of people already infected, two experts claim. Audio

The roll-out of a cervical cancer test women can do themselves has been delayed again, with doctors saying women will die unnecessarily as a result. Audio

Auckland's public health service tried to get out of a huge increase in Covid-19 contact tracing requirements, saying they seemed unnecessary.

A vaccination campaign to plug a gap that leaves the country vulnerable to a deadly measles outbreak will begin this year, the government says.

Pasifika doctors say a measles vaccination catch-up campaign is years overdue - and would have prevented last year's epidemic if it had been done on time.

Hundreds of doctors surveyed by the College of GPs say they've had patients refuse to be tested for Covid-19, sometimes because they don't think it's necessary.

One person has died and two people have been hospitalised with listeria in Tauranga, prompting a warning to pregnant women and others at risk.

It appears fewer babies were born prematurely during the lockdown, putting New Zealand in line with a trend seen in other countries.

Auckland's Covid contact tracing capacity is about half what it needs to be, with nine days until the deadline to have it up to scratch.

Just eight Covid-19 tests of people in the community were processed on Sunday, prompting the government to look at whether to loosen testing criteria. Audio

Some people are being refused testing at Auckland Covid community testing centres, even if Healthline has told them to get one.

Some doctors are charging for Covid-19 tests despite health officials saying they should be free, and there's also confusion about who should be swabbed.

Covid-19 testing for every person with a cough or cold symptom has been dropped, in a move expected to put an end to the huge demand for tests in some areas. Audio

A Whangārei GP says the city ran out of Covid-19 swabs yesterday as a result of increasing demand. Audio

Plans to close Wellington's Covid-19 community testing centres this week have been ditched amid the rising number of overseas cases.

District health boards will be slashed and new government health agencies created in a massive overhaul of the health system. Video

Mental health and women's health won't be compulsory subjects in the final year of the University of Otago medical degree under proposed changes.

Health unions are furious at WorkSafe's decision not to investigate how seven nurses caught Covid-19 at Waitākere Hospital. Audio

There's been a dramatic rise in the number of Wellington children in hospital with the dangerous disease rheumatic fever.

Auckland's Covid-19 contact tracing has to be five times what it was at the height of the outbreak to meet government requirements.

National screening for one of the country's deadliest cancers will not start again until the end of June, with advocates fearing the delay could cost lives.

GPs say they've been passed over in the Budget and want to be at the table when the extra health support the government has promised is divvied up.