Nurse fears viciousness of Covid still to strike

• Published date: 23 October 2021
• Publication title: Whanganui Chronicle

Some days she can’t help tears falling down her cheek as she reflects on the atrocities she and her colleagues have witnessed inside the walls of Auckland City Hospital’s COVID ward and intensive care unit (ICU).

“It does scare me,” she tells the Weekend Herald through her mask. “I am always worried about what will happen if not enough people get vaccinated.”

Pereira, a nurse unit manager, is speaking nearly 600 days after New Zealand was hit with its first COVID case, which has since left dozens of families heartbroken after losing loved ones and many suffering long-term effects of the virus.

New Zealand’s COVID death toll sits at 28. Since the pandemic reached our shores, more than 5000 people have become infected — the population of a small New Zealand town.

As of Friday morning, 790 of those were still infected.

Since COVID first struck in March last year, Auckland City Hospital alone has seen 150 patients infected with the virus — some end up in the COVID ward and those who are critically ill are rushed to ICU.

As of Friday, there were 46 patients in hospital with COVID across the country — North Shore (7), Middlemore (14), Auckland (24), Waikato (1). Seven were fighting for their lives in ICU.

But even with the emergence of the more aggressive Delta strain, Pereira said she was wary our “greener than green” country had not yet experienced the viciousness of COVID that has ripped through other countries.

She’s often reminded of this by her friends back in India, where she trained to be a nurse before moving to New Zealand with her family in 2005.

When she prayed, her mind flicked to her 23-year-old daughter, her husband and her 85-year-old mum.

The thought of the lethal virus striking those she cared most about in the world was terrifying.

“Personally, I do say a little prayer every day for everyone out there.”

As case numbers continue to climb, Pereira and her team have seen patients bedridden, struggling to breathe and fighting for survival from the preventable but extremely aggressive virus.

She wouldn’t wish it upon anyone.

“It varies from patient to patient and depends on whether they have any other underlying health issues. Most patients come in with flu-like symptoms; shortness of breath, fever, increased heart rate, cough, fatigue, loss of taste and smell.”

Some days are harder than others, “especially when you see those high case numbers announced by the Government”.

But when Pereira steps into the COVID ward each morning at 7.30am, she tells...