The Ministry provided this science and technical advice on COVID-19 between 2021 and 2023.
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Science Updates
30 March 2022: Request for advice about vaccination in children (5–11)
This request for advice (RfA) was developed to support the discussions and formulation of advice for providing access to the COVID-19 vaccines for this age group within Aotearoa New Zealand. These discussions were primarily held by the COVID-19 Vaccine Technical Advisory Group (CV TAG), who subsequently formulated the advice on vaccination. The RfA has been developed by Ministry of Health expert advisors, in conjunction with expert peer-review obtained through the CV TAG review process.
13 September 2021: Vaccination in pregnancy not associated with miscarriage
Two studies show that the rate of miscarriage is similar for vaccinated and unvaccinated pregnant people, and that there is no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine is associated with an increased risk of miscarriage during pregnancy
9 July 2021: COVID-19 pharmaceutical treatments
We present a brief summary of the most notable therapeutics for treating cases of COVID-19 trialled to date. These are categorised by ‘likely to be beneficial’, ‘showing promise’, and ‘unsupported by current evidence’. We also compare and discuss key points of differences between two meta-analyses of available trial data regarding the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 that arrived at conflicting conclusions.
14 May 2021: Shifting thinking on aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2
The WHO and, more recently, CDC have updated their statements to more clearly accept the role airborne transmission is likely to have in the spread of COVID-19. While the Ministry of Health has long been factoring this likely mode of transmission into its planning and mitigation strategies, this has been based on caution rather than certainty. While certainty still remains somewhat elusive, recent expert summaries (noted within) and the acceptance from peak bodies further strengthens our basis for the continual revision of our mitigation strategies to reduce the risk of airborne transmission.
Variants Updates
Between July 2022 and February 2023, the Ministry published Variant Updates to provide information on variants of the virus that were of interest of concern.
