Last Friday, August 14, was Hato Hone St John’s busiest day on record, with extreme pressure from seasonal illness driving the surge in callouts. The week prior, the ambulance service had declared a major incident response and activated its emergency operations centre for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic. One ambulance driver told The Spinoff it’s “worse than Covid”.

In the week ending August 9, severe acute respiratory infection (Sari) hospitalisations in Auckland shot up, reaching the “high activity” level for the first time this year, with the rate higher than any week in 2025. Influenza was the most commonly detected virus, with rates doubling in a week.

PHF Science has yet to publish the statistics for last week.

Directed, filmed and edited by Faith Cruz.
Written and presented by Robbie Nicol.
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