Workers who deal with the public are calling for more support as they fight an uphill battle to make sure they do not get reinfected with Covid-19.
The findings of a US-based study show those with two or more infections had more than twice the risk of dying. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
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The Ministry of Health says 16,000 people have been reinfected with the coronavirus since the first case was detected in 2020.
About 10,000 of those have been reinfected within 90 days.
This comes as new evidence shows reinfection is more likely to cause new or lasting health problems according to an international study.
The US-based study focused on people who had their first infection between March 2020 and September 2021 and then got Covid-10 again, comparing them with people who had not had Covid-19 or had just one infection.
The findings show those with two or more infections had more than twice the risk of dying and three times the risk of being hospitalised within six months of their last infection.
They also had higher risks for lung and heart problems, fatigue, digestive and kidney disorders, diabetes and neurological problems.
Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles said those that have had Covid-19 once had no guarantees the second time.
"Every infection now seems to increase your risk of potential long-term damage, so it's important that we do everything we can to both protect those people who haven't had an infection yet, but also to protect those people who have had Covid."
With a second wave coming, she was urging all those eligible, to get boosters as soon as possible.
But she said the study showed the best defence was trying to prevent the spread.
"We also need to stop thinking of the vaccine as kind of making us bulletproof we need to be doing everything on top of vaccination like mask-wearing and ventilation."
For those who work with the public, that is extremely difficult.
"I often ask them if you know their employer has even provided them with CO2 monitors the answer is nearly always no, I'll ask them has your employer updated the ventilation system to reflect the reality that we're in a global pandemic that's raging all around us, and the answer is always no," said hospitality worker and Raise the Bar Union founder Chloe Ann King.
The union said many workers were battling Covid-19 for a second or even third time - some in less than three months.
King said employers urgently needed to take staff health and safety seriously.
"To be updating the ventilation systems, not just cracking open a door when the air feels like soup because you've got so many people in there, it's a really packed out nightclub."
No mask mandates in hospitality effectively mean no mask-wearing.
"Like maybe in a night I'll see two people come in with a mask, it's been a bit of a death row to the industry because many businesses are having to cut their hours because their workers are sick."
For retail, masks are required but they are slipping from shoppers' faces.
First Union national retail spokesperson Ben Peterson said that urgently needed to change and so did staff rosters.
"It's quite alarming that almost three years into the Covid era we're still seeing rosters that are too short and people being put under pressure to come to work when they're feeling sick it's not acceptable, we've been through this for long enough now that we really need to change the way we do staffing and rostering."
For supermarket workers, Covid-19 has always been a huge risk.
Countdown director Kiri Hannifin said it was constantly dealing with cases and many staff were getting sick for the second time.
"All together this year, we've had about 8000 team [members] who have had Covid, which is a large number, although we're a large team and we've had about 100 of those team also have a subsequent reinfection."
Hannifin said it was supporting staff with extra time off work when sick, providing surgical and N95 masks and trying to improve ventilation.
It was also looking for extra staff to fill gaps when Covid-19 strikes.
"We're kind of upping the recruitment again at the moment as we're expecting a surge over the next few months. So to have extra team on is really good if some team are out, it means that the team who are remaining in the stores or the distribution centres aren't kind of run off their feet."
As the daily Covid-19 case count keeps rising, experts are urging people to return to the basic infection prevention practices of hand-washing and mask-wearing.