Health – Hospitalisation spike likely during back-to-school period

Source: Asthma and Respiratory Foundation

A spike in asthma-related hospitalisations is expected as children flock through school gates for the start of a new year.
The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ is encouraging everyone to be aware of the symptoms of an asthma attack and how to respond, with hospitalisations from attacks at their highest during week 3 of Term 1.
Symptoms of an asthma attack are a worsening cough, persistent wheezing, shortness of breath and/or feeling tight in the chest.
Chief Executive Ms Letitia Harding says the back-to-school period is always a vulnerable time for the one in eight Kiwi children with asthma.
“The ‘back-to-school effect’ is greater than the ‘winter effect’ when it comes to children’s respiratory disease with the risk of hospitalisation two and a half times higher on the peak day in the third week of term 1 than on the first day of term.”
International studies have shown that various factors are associated with the increase, including a change of environment and exposure to different allergens, changes in emotions such as stress or anxiety, and exposure to more viruses from being around more people, Ms Harding says.
To keep children safe through the return-to-school period, parents and caregivers should ensure that their child has an Asthma Action Plan, which is shared with their school and their teacher, Ms Harding says.
“Make sure your child is taking their preventer medication as prescribed and bringing their reliever inhaler to school, and check that it’s not empty or out of date.”
Asthma is a common illness in New Zealand, affecting one in eight children and one in eight adults. About 96 people die from asthma each year – that’s nearly two people per week.
In addition, one-third of all respiratory-related hospital admissions are children and it is estimated that more than 360,000 school days are lost each year due to asthma-related symptoms in children.
For most children, going back to school is an exciting time, Ms Harding says.
“But unfortunately, for many, this period can lead to severe reactions – putting children at risk.
“That’s why investing in educating children about asthma is a huge focus for us,” she says. 

27 January 2025 Transforming Lower Hutt: The Epuni Development Kāinga Ora proudly celebrates the completion of the Epuni Development, the largest housing project in Lower Hutt. This transformative initiative delivers 134 modern, warm, and energy-efficient homes, nearly tripling the capacity of the original site.

Source: New Zealand Government Kainga Ora

The project sets a new standard for community-focused living by integrating housing with support services designed to help residents thrive. The development replaces 54 outdated homes with a mix of one-bedroom apartments and multi-bedroom family homes, several of which are designed to be accessible, catering to a range of needs. These homes have been built to the highest standards of warmth, dryness, and energy efficiency, providing a safe and secure environment for individuals and families.

Vicki McLaren, Kāinga Ora Regional Director for Greater Wellington, describes the development as a milestone in creating inclusive communities. “The Epuni Development is more than just housing; it’s about creating a supportive, connected, and inclusive community. This project is a shining example of what can be achieved when we work in partnership to meet housing and social needs together.”

The new Epuni development adds to the housing stock in Lower Hutt.

The development also features landscaped outdoor spaces and a shared community room, fostering a sense of connection among residents. On-site support services are delivered through key partnerships with Tākiri Mai te Ata Whānau Ora Collective and He Puāwai Trust. Tākiri Mai te Ata provides wraparound support including financial mentoring, mental health services, and health navigation, while He Puāwai Trust offers holistic whānau support that focuses on the well-being and empowerment of families. Together, these partnerships ensure residents not only have a place to call home but also access to the resources they need to thrive.

“This development isn’t just about numbers—it’s about creating a place where individuals and families can feel secure and supported,” says Vicki McLaren. “From energy-efficient designs to accessible layouts, every detail has been considered with the residents in mind.”

Partnerships have been central to the success of the Epuni Development. Kāinga Ora worked closely with Urban Plus, Hutt City Council’s housing development agency, to further enhance the community’s housing options. Urban Plus is currently constructing 30 affordable townhouses on part of the site, fostering a balanced and inclusive neighborhood. Reflecting on this collaboration, Vicki McLaren adds, “ by partnering with organizations that share our vision, we’ve created a balanced and inclusive community. This project showcases how collaboration can lead to meaningful, lasting change.”

The Epuni Development not only addresses the urgent demand for housing but also establishes a blueprint for future projects. By integrating housing with community spaces and support services, it demonstrates Kāinga Ora’s commitment to long-term well-being and stability for its residents. “The Epuni Development sets a benchmark for future projects,” concludes Vicki McLaren. “It reflects our dedication to delivering not just homes, but thriving communities where people can truly belong.”

Page updated: 27 January 2025

Hihi thrive in new regional park home

Source: Auckland Council

A conservation effort led by Auckland Council rangers to assist one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most treasured native birds is delivering groundbreaking results.

At least 55 rare hihi chicks have hatched in Shakespear Regional Park’s Open Sanctuary this summer – a first for the species in more than a hundred years.  

Auckland Council Parks Committee chair, Councillor Ken Turner, says the commitment from staff, local iwi, volunteers, and the Department of Conservation to reintroduce hihi to the Auckland mainland is a significant step to secure the future of this distinctive forest songbird.  

“I’m hugely thankful for the work that our rangers and others do to build on the conservation of our region’s flora and fauna. The success of this project will give hihi the boost it needs to flourish again, and Aucklanders an opportunity to experience these little treasures in their natural environment,” Cr Turner says.

The new chicks have emerged following a carefully managed journey in June 2024 for 40 adult hihi, also known as stitchbirds, from predator-free Tiritiri Matangi Island to a new mainland home at Shakespear Regional Park.

Senior Ranger of Shakespear Open Sanctuary Matt Maitland says the council’s Regional Parks northern team, Shakespear Open Sanctuary Society (SOSSI) and Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust, who all worked together on the translocation, have been thrilled to see so many of the birds breeding.

“The number of healthy chicks to arrive has exceeded all our expectations, given it’s the first breeding season in their new home,” says Mr Maitland.  

“They are the first hihi – one of NZ’s rarest forest birds – to hatch and succeed in the area since disappearing from mainland Auckland in the 1870s.”

Mr Maitland credits an ongoing focus from partners involved in the project for its success, with translocation support provided by the Hihi Conservation Charitable Trust, the Department of Conservation Hihi Recovery Group, and Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi.

A couple of hihi were lost due to natural causes, but this is a great result compared with an unsuccessful translocation attempt in 2022, Mr Maitland says. 

The hihi is nationally threatened, with Te Hauturu-o-toi Little Barrier Island holding the only naturally-surviving population since the 1880s.

Recovery efforts have recently established small populations in pockets around the North Island, including at Tiritiri Matangi. Shakespear Open Sanctuary now brings the total number of hihi habitats to eight.

There are thought to be around 2000 hihi in the country, making it one of New Zealand’s rarest native birds.

The council and SOSSI volunteers will continue to closely monitor the new population at Shakespear Regional Park, while working with other partners to provide enhanced protection to their habitat alongside education initiatives.

SOSSI volunteer Maree Johnston and Auckland Council ranger Bruce Harrison carefully undertake the task of banding a hihi chick.

Stretch of SH2 near Takapau closed following crash

Source: New Zealand Transport Agency

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State Highway 2 between Speedy Road and the intersection with State Highway 50 in Central Hawke’s Bay is closed following a crash this morning.

Please follow the directions of emergency services on site and allow extra time for your journey.

Keep up to date with the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi Journey Planner.

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Prolonged Symptoms Attributable to Infection with COVID-19

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health

Summary

Fatigue, poor concentration/memory, shortness of breath and loss of taste or smell are the most prevalent symptoms following COVID-19 infection in adults when compared with non-COVID-19 infected controls (either population controls or those with infective symptoms but testing negative for COVID-19). Children and adolescents present with similar symptoms to adults, but may also include cough and headache. 

Given the heterogeneity of evidence to date, and in the absence of high-powered, robust studies, a meta-analysis could not be undertaken to accurately determine the overall prevalence of one or more of these symptoms three or more months after infection with COVID-19. 

While a precise measurement of symptom prevalence remains a challenge, the knowledge that a narrower subset of symptoms can be confidently attributed to infection with COVID-19 has important implications. In the absence of definitive diagnostic criteria, this subset can inform a refined, iterative definition of long COVID-19, both internationally and in New Zealand. 

The finding that four symptoms appear to be attributable to infection with COVID-19 will enable focused attention on these symptoms. This will facilitate accurate surveillance and targeted resourcing for clinical and wellbeing support where it is most needed.

Multiple arrests in Rotorua CBD following Operation Trolley

Source: New Zealand Police (National News)

As part of ongoing work to ensure Rotorua’s community feels safer within the CBD, 13 people were arrested and 45 shopping trolleys have been returned to their respective stores, following a three-day Police operation.

From Tuesday 21 to Thursday 23 January, Police executed Operation Trolley focusing on engaging and educating managers of local businesses and enforcing the illegal actions of people using or having possession of shopping trolleys outside the boundaries of their respective stores.

While being homeless is not a crime in and of itself, Police has recently received complaints in regard to homeless people in possession of trolleys intimidating members of the public and workers as they walk through the CBD.

Any antisocial or unlawful behaviour will not be tolerated, and Police is committed to ensuring anyone going about their lawful business in the CBD are safe and feel safe.

Upon speaking with local retail store and business managers, Police identified several people using retail store owned shopping trolleys for their personal use without lawful authority.

Police arrested seven people in possession of shopping trolleys for receiving an item worth less than $500. They were all given verbal warnings.

Six other people were arrested for historical offences including theft, assault, arrest warrants, bail breaches, and trespassing.

Police also issued 19 trespass notices, trespassing individuals in possession of a trolley from the trolley’s respective store.

In total, 45 trolleys were returned to their businesses at the end of the three-day operation.

Homelessness is a social problem which requires a joint effort to address the underlying issues. Police works with a number of agencies to understand these issues, support the homeless, and collectively find homeless people long-term solutions.

ENDS

Issued by Police Media Centre

Speech to the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand

Source: ACT Party

Delivered by Hon David Seymour on 26 January 2025, hosted by the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand in Remuera.

Thank you Gillian, and the Board of the Holocaust Centre for inviting me to give this address. I am humbled to speak the day before the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

I have long feared that the horrors of World War Two would slip from living memory. As a nine year old, I had a teacher who talked often about her own schooling in fear of a Japanese invasion. It stuck with me that children had to practice evacuating and sit in trenches with cotton wool in their ears and corks between their teeth. That teacher retired at the end of that year, and I wondered how students in the next class would know about the war.

Of course, I couldn’t have known about the Holocaust Centre, it was founded fifteen years later. The Centre could be seen as a response to the task of keeping these memories real when only a precious few, whom I acknowledge today, can remind us of the horrors first hand.

It falls on each of us to make a conscious effort keep the lessons learned alive. One of the most helpful tools we have for doing that is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed at Paris in the aftermath of World War Two by our then Prime Minister Peter Fraser.

World War Two and the Holocaust gave people clarity of thought. In those painful times it didn’t take much effort to think clearly about what was right, what was wrong, and what must be avoided at all costs.

The preamble of the Declaration begins

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable
rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice
and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous
acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world
in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom
from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common
people …

The Declaration then lists Human Rights in a series of articles.

Article One says:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are
endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a
spirit of brotherhood.

Article Two is more specific, saying:

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration,
without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion,
political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political,
jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person
belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other
limitation of sovereignty.

Reading these words, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the Holocaust weighed heavily on the minds of the drafters of and Parties to this declaration. It was far from the only evil of World War Two, but sadly its scale and inhumanity make it the singular act of evil not only in that War but all wars.

Just as the Holocaust brought great clarity of thought in its aftermath, disordered thinking brings great danger that something like it will be repeated.

The misuse of the word genocide, the casual blaming of victims after the October 7th attacks, and the excusal of the true perpetrator, Hamas, are all examples that no doubt weigh heavily on the minds of Auckland’s Jewish community.

These are also part of a wider intellectual trend.

Sir Karl Popper, a Jewish Philosopher who lost 16 members of his own family to the Holocaust and found refuge in New Zealand, was responsible for defining the scientific method.

Through the early and mid-twentieth centuries, Popper won the argument about how science proceeds. His approach, testing falsifiable hypotheses against empirically verifiable facts, is wonderfully equalitarian and democratic.

He showed, like Galileo before him, that no matter who you are, if your idea stacks up, plain for all to see, that you can make a breakthrough. It doesn’t just apply in science. As Popper himself said, all life is problem solving.

In contrast to that liberal vision, we hear that people can have knowledge according to their identity. People say ‘speaking as a…’. There are different kinds of knowledge that always turn on identity. These are dangerous thoughts. They deny the ability of any individual to see truth according to an agreed method. They take you down the path to where might is right.

I had an email from a much brighter and younger person than me over the summer, worried about the fate of liberalism. I said, perhaps we need a new book. His reply was brilliant. He said, perhaps, but first we should all reread Poppers Open Society and its Enemies. I’m taking his advice.

My challenge in a YouTube world is that we should all read more. As the Holocaust’s Horrors slip from living memory, my challenge is to read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and The Open Society, for lessons we must not forget.

Fatal crash, SH2 Takapau

Source: New Zealand Police (National News)

Police can confirm one person has died following a crash on State Highway 2, north of Takapau this morning.

The two-vehicle crash involving a truck and a car, was reported to police around 8:10am.

One person died at the scene.

The road remains closed and will be for most of the day. We advise motorists to avoid the area.

Detours are in place via State Highway 50.

ENDS

Issued by Police Media Centre

Fatal crash, SH73 Arthurs Pass

Source: New Zealand Police (National News)

One person has died following a single vehicle crash in Arthurs Pass.

The crash occurred on State Highway 73 and was reported to Police at around 8:20am today.

One person was located deceased at the scene.

Motorists travelling on State Highway 73 are advised to expect delays and avoid the area if possible.

ENDS

Issued by Police Media Centre

Update: State Highway 2, Takapau crash

Source: New Zealand Police (District News)


District:

Eastern

State Highway 2, north of Takapau remains closed and is expected to be closed for most of the day. 

A detour is in place via State Highway 50.

Motorists are advised to avoid the area and expect ongoing delays. 

ENDS

Issued by Police Media Centre