There are 8150 new community cases of Covid-19 to report today including 617 in the South.
The Ministry of Health said the seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today is 7308 – last Wednesday, it was 8024.
There are also 11 new deaths if people with Covid to report today.
The deaths being reported today are for people who have died in the past 10 days, apart from one death on May 6 and one death on April 11.
Delays to reporting can be associated with people dying with Covid-19, rather than from Covid-19, and Covid being discovered only after they have died.
These deaths take the total number of publicly reported deaths with Covid-19 to 1086 and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 10.
Of the deaths reported today; two were from the Auckland region, one was from Waikato, two were from Taranaki, one was from Hawke’s Bay, one was from MidCentral, three were from Canterbury, and one was from Southern.
One person was aged under 10, one was in their 30s, one was in their 60s, one was in their 70s, three were in their 80s, and four were aged over 90.
Of these people, six were female and five were male.
Omicron BA.2.12.1 update
"We are today reporting our first case of the Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1 in a community case, without a clear link to the border, in Hawke’s Bay from a test result returned on 10 May 2022.
"This Omicron subvariant is prevalent in the USA and has been detected at our border for many weeks - there have been 29 imported cases reported since April, so its movement into the community is not unexpected.
"Emerging data suggests BA.2.12.1 is marginally more transmissible than the subvariants currently circulating in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Our genomic surveillance (genomes and wastewater) remains in place to study any new variants and track their spread.
"The public health settings already in place to manage other Omicron variants are assessed to be appropriate for managing subvariants present in our community and no changes are required."
"Meanwhile, the Omicron BA.4 and/or BA.5 subvariants have been detected in wastewater samples at Rosedale on Auckland’s North Shore and in Gisborne.
"The presence of these subvariants in the community is also not unexpected.
"The BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants are being monitored by the World Health Organization; to date, compared to BA.2, there is clinical data to suggest an increased transmissibility but no data suggesting it causes more severe illness.
"As with all variants of Omicron, the public health advice remains the same. Getting your booster remains one of the best defences against Covid-19. Wear a mask indoors, stay home if you’re unwell, get tested if you’re symptomatic, and get vaccinated.
"The vast majority of recently sequenced cases in New Zealand continue to be of the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant, with small number of cases with the BA.1 sub-variant.
"We are continuing to monitor transmission of all variants across the country and internationally. These latest detections emphasise the importance of continued wastewater testing, as increasingly ESR sequencing is able to refine what its testing detects. The sequencing can determine that either BA.4 or BA.5 subvariant or both may be present but is not able to be more specific at this stage."
Cases in hospital: total number 368: Northland: 10; Waitemata: 39; Counties Manukau: 23; Auckland: 61; Waikato: 24; Bay of Plenty: 9; Lakes: 1; Tairāwhiti: 1; Hawke’s Bay: 19; Taranaki: 9; Whanganui: 6; MidCentral: 14; Wairarapa: 3; Hutt Valley: 9; Capital and Coast: 33; Nelson Marlborough: 7; Canterbury: 50; South Canterbury: 17; West Coast: 1; Southern: 32.
Location of new community cases (PCR & RAT): Northland (237), Auckland (2,617), Waikato (602), Bay of Plenty (270), Lakes (137), Hawke’s Bay (217), MidCentral (247), Whanganui (78), Taranaki (249), Tairāwhiti (46), Wairarapa (85), Capital and Coast (632), Hutt Valley (221), Nelson Marlborough (356), Canterbury (1,284), South Canterbury (165), Southern (617), West Coast (87), Unknown (3)
