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