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Monthly Archives: February 2022

Ventilation in NZ schools during the Omicron wave – results from a preliminary study

Monday, February 28th, 2022 | carra86p | No Comments

Dr Julie Bennett, Dr Tim Chambers and Dr Caroline Shorter*

Ventilation is a key and relatively underutilised public health measure that can reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission. Last year we outlined the need for adequate ventilation in schools and highlighted the need for nationwide ventilation surveillance. In this blog we provide an overview of the results of carbon dioxide (CO2) monitoring carried out in a variety of schools at the start of the Omicron wave. These results highlight that excessive levels of CO2 can build up in classrooms – and that this can be prevented by window opening. 

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Aotearoa New Zealand’s unhealthy food environment needs more policy action

Monday, February 28th, 2022 | carra86p | No Comments

Dr Sally Mackay, Dr Kelly Garton, Dr Sarah Gerritsen*

A new report reveals the troubling state of New Zealand’s food environment due to inaction from successive Governments and calls for this to change. Food environments influence the food we buy and eat, so are a key intervention area for improving population nutrition and diet-related health conditions. Food policies can improve food environments by making healthier foods and drinks more available, affordable, accessible and widely promoted, so have the potential to address inequities in health.

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Strengthening Omicron mitigation strategies in Early Childhood Education settings

Thursday, February 24th, 2022 | carra86p | 2 Comments

Julie Bennett, Philippa Anderson, Sarah Donovan, Amanda Kvalsvig, Alison Leversha, Subhadra Rajanaidu, and Jin Russell*

Aotearoa New Zealand is in a major Omicron outbreak. With Covid-19 cases doubling every few days, what opportunities are there to strengthen the mitigation approaches in early education settings? In this blog we discuss what is needed to protect this group of children and their whānau as we navigate the next phases of the Covid-19 outbreak. There remains substantial scope for further risk reduction measures, especially relating to improving ventilation, increasing outdoor activities and appropriate mask use.

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Mortality declines in Aotearoa NZ during the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 | carra86p | 6 Comments

Dr Jennifer Summers, Professor Michael Baker, Professor Nick Wilson*

In this blog we review the impact of Aotearoa NZ’s Covid-19 response strategies on mortality patterns during the first 2 years of the pandemic. We find that NZ experienced an increase in life expectancy, decreased winter mortality, and net decline in (excess) mortality. These impacts are far more positive than experienced by all other high-income countries during this pandemic period. This picture supports the cautious elimination and suppression strategies used for the first 2 years of the pandemic and there has also been time to prepare the country for the current Omicron wave.  

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Promoting physical activity through the prescription of smartphone apps in primary care: Likely to produce health gains and cost-savings

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 | carra86p | No Comments

Dr Leah Grout, Kendra Telfer, Dr Cristina Cleghorn, Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Anja Mizdrak*

Over 40% of NZ adults are insufficiently physically active. In this blog we summarise our recently published modelling work that suggests that the prescription of smartphone apps for physical activity promotion in primary care could benefit health and save millions in health sector costs for NZ. Nevertheless, this type of intervention should ideally occur in conjunction with societal-wide shifts that support more walking and cycling, as these are likely to generate much larger health gains and cost-savings.

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