COVID became the biggest killer in New Zealand for the first time in July, causing twice the number of deaths as those from strokes. Figures show that nearly 15 percent of all deaths in mid-July in the island nation were due to COVID, and that estimate is probably an underestimate as some people will have died of the disease without being tested. Epidemiologist Michael Baker said that COVID appeared to be equaling the number of deaths caused by ischaemic heart disease, meaning it had tied as New Zealand’s biggest killer in recent weeks. Referring to analysis by the New Zealand Herald, Baker said the COVID death toll could be as much as 10 times higher than that of traffic accidents. If the current trajectory continued, the number of annual COVID deaths could also hit about five times the rate of influenza deaths, which were once used as a standard comparison against COVID. Heart disease usually causes around 15 percent of deaths while strokes account for eight percent. “Mortality in this wave has reached a new peak in New Zealand,” Baker said. “[But] at the point where we’re seeing peak mortality, we’ve seen, seemingly, public interest and concern dropping to quite a low level—and I find that paradoxical.”
