Covid 19

Covid, bad weather and the price of petrol are among the challenges schools have encountered in their first few days of the new school year.

The new Covid-19 vaccine for under-5s at risk of severe disease should be considered for all children in the age group given their high infection rate, a epidemiologist says.

The pandemic smashed the international education sector - but are foreign students returning to our shores?

The weekly number of new Covid-19 cases in the community is 8882, with 26 further deaths reported.

The weekly number of new community cases of Covid-19 has fallen again, to 10,589, the Ministry of Health has reported.

There has been much debate about the real number of Covid-19 deaths in China, after the virus ripped through its megacities.

The Christmas holidays acted as a "circuit break", helping stop the most recent Covid-19 peak getting any higher, Dr David Welch says. Audio

There have been 13,880 new cases of Covid-19 over the past week, the Ministry of Health has reported.

Japan will consider revising Covid-19 measures as early as this spring, says Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Opinion - An upgraded global response to future potential pandemic threats would give the best chance of eliminating new infectious diseases at source before they spread globally.

As hundreds of millions of Chinese travel to reunite with families for the Lunar New Year, many will do so after mourning relatives who died in the latest Covid-19 wave.

A prominent epidemiologist says the risk of chronic and debilitating illness from long Covid could grow as more people are re-infected. Audio

The Ministry of Health is reporting another drop in the number of Covid-19 cases this week.

China has announced nearly 60,000 people with Covid-19 have died in hospital, a huge jump from previously reported figures, but a NZ expert says the real figure is likely much higher.

The rapid dismantling of the zero-tolerance policy "feels weird", writes BBC News reporter Stephen McDonell in Beijing.