4.1 New Zealand’s experience in 2020 was different to many other countries He rerekē te wheako o Aotearoa i te tau 2020 i tō ētahi atu whenua
COVID-19 arrives in New Zealand | He rerekē te wheako o Aotearoa i te tau 2020 i tō ētahi atu whenua
New Zealand's experience of COVID-19 in 2020 was very different to most other countries (Figure 9). New Zealand daily COVID-19 cases averaged over any seven-day period were fewer than 80 during 2020, and fewer than 200 during 2021.
We do not have equivalent data for New Zealand on hospital occupancy rates to those in Figure 8, but we do have hospital admissions (orange line in Figure 9). These were generally below two people per day during 2020, climbing to around 10 at the November 2021 peak.
Figure 9: COVID-19 in New Zealand in 2020 and 2021
Reported COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions, and deaths, per million people, 7-day average
Source: Health New Zealand I Te Whatu Ora, COVID-19 Trends and Insights
Notes: Figure shows hospital admissions, not occupancy.
Even during the outbreak at the end of 2021, rates of infection were still well below those of other countries (Figure 10). By mid-2021, 100,000 out of every million people, or 10% of the population, had caught COVID-19 in countries like Sweden, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. At the same time, Japan, Australia and New Zealand barely register on the chart.
Figure 10: Cumulative COVID-19 cases, 2020–2021
Confirmed cases per million people
Source: Our World in Data, World Health Organization
Notes: Due to limited testing, the number of confirmed cases is lower than the true number of infections.
A pattern that can be seen in Figure 10 is that of initial growth in cases, followed by a plateau with few new cases (the flat parts of the curves in the Figure). This pattern was a result of both measures taken by government and changes of behaviour of people, as well as the evolution of the virus itself.
The ability of the virus to mutate was clearly seen with the arrival and spread of the Delta variant. Delta was two to three times more transmissible than the original COVID-19 strain, with an R₀ of five to eight. It was first identified in India in October 2020 and drove a substantial outbreak in that country between March and June 2021. Delta was first detected in New Zealand in August 2021.