16 Mar 2021

Research finds Covid's long tail has sting for NZ elders

From Nine To Noon, 9:39 am on 16 March 2021

Older people are continuing to suffer the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, even as New Zealand returns to a relative sense of normality, according to new research.

While the country has avoided mass casualties and death from Covid-19, all of the 26 who have died from it here have been aged between 50 and over-90 years.

A new report from Tauranga-based social gerontologist Carole Gordon entitled Safe? The Impact of COVID-19 focused on how the pandemic has affected older people, noting many were forced into social isolation earlier than the official level four lockdown, leading - in some cases -  to human rights abuses.

She says many are still afraid to go out and are limiting their lives, with associated social disconnectedness and hardship.

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Photo: Supplied