Covid 19

The planned Covid-19 response has been updated to adapt for the arrival of Omicron, Manawatū health officials say.

Doctor Bernard Conlon says he has received notification from the Medical Council of New Zealand that it intends to suspend him ahead of the investigation into the various complaints laid against him.

A West Coast kaupapa Māori health provider is holding its first vaccination clinic for tamariki near Hokitika this weekend, as the vaccine rollout is extended to children.

Testing has found 39 new community cases of Covid-19 and one new possible Omicron case in Palmerston North.

Te Tai Tokerau Border Control has hit out at today's decision to shift Te Tai Tokerau - Northland - to orange in the Covid-19 traffic light system.

Three central Auckland nightclubs have been listed as Covid-19 'close contact' locations of interest.

The Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency says it plans to take further legal action against the Ministry of Health to get it to release data on Māori children who are now eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine.

Educating people that the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out was not "two and done" is the focus of Marlborough health staff as they try to lift booster shots, particularly for Māori and Pasifika populations.

It has been a milestone day on the country's Covid-19 vaccine calendar with four-month booster bookings open and the first primary school children receiving a paediatric dose.

Online bookings for Covid-19 vaccine boosters open, while the Ministry of Health has altered the advice for some at-risk populations.

The pandemic has made the world's wealthiest far richer but led to more people living in poverty, according to the charity Oxfam.

A group of leading health professionals are pushing for the government to be better prepared for an outbreak of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.

Hundreds of unvaccinated firefighters can no longer respond to emergency calls, and those gaps will have to be plugged from elsewhere, fire service figures say. Audio

An iwi collective's Covid-19 campaign to lift Māori vaccination will go out on the front foot with an online information blitz to tackle hesitancy about vaccinating children.

The US Supreme Court has blocked President Joe Biden's rule requiring workers at large companies to be vaccinated or masked and tested weekly.

The Chinese city of Tianjin has started a new round of testing of its 14 million residents to block the Omicron variant, as financial analysts warn of the growing economic cost of Covid-19…

The United States has reported at least 1.13 million new coronavirus infections in a day, the highest daily total of any country in the world.

It's been described by an expert as a lockdown in NSW without public health orders.

The union representing senior salaried doctors says there is growing anxiety about the Omicron variant among hospital staff in an already burnt out workforce.

Australia is learning about exponential growth the hard way, and tackling big questions; are the numbers accurate, how to test, will the health system hold up?